Anthony “Rumble” Johnson is one of the UFC’s most promising young fighters. Perhaps the largest man ever to fight in the welterweight (170 lb.) division, Johnson is reputed to cut approximately 40 lbs. in order to make weight, and indeed, missed the cut in his fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida by a full six pounds. As a result, Johnson has considered a permanent move to the middleweight division.

Johnson made an immediate impact upon his entrance to the UFC, knocking out opponent Chad Reiner at Ultimate Fight Night 10 in only 13 seconds. He also boasts highlight reel-worthy knockouts over Tommy Speer, as well as Kevin Burns in a rematch after an inadvertent eye poke ended their first encounter prematurely.

Johnson’s strength at this point in his career is his standup striking, particularly in the first minutes of a fight, as well as the extraordinary size advantage conferred on him by his unusual ability to cut so much weight. Despite a disappointing loss to Josh Koscheck in a high profile fight that would have put him in line to challenge for the title, Johnson looks to contend for a championship as soon as he puts a solid string of victories together. In March, 2011, Johnson notched the biggest victory of his career to-date when he controlled Dan Hardy en route to a comfortable Unanimous Decision. He would pick up another win over Charlie Brenneman before losing to Vitor Belfort and subsequently get cut from the UFC.

Since leaving the UFC Johnson continued fighting and racked up a 6 fight win streak including wins over DJ Linderman and Andrei Arlovski for the World Series of Fighting promotion. His next victim turned out to be veteran fighter Mike Kyle, whom Johnson knocked out in barely over 2 minutes at WSOF 8. With the exception of the Arlovski fight that was at heavyweight the rest of the bouts were at Johnson's new weight class of light heavyweight. The UFC took notice of his streak and he is now set to return to the octagon against Phil Davis at UFC 172.

After besting Phil Davis at UFC 172 via unanimous decision, "Rumble" was set to face former title challenger Alexander Gustafsson in "The Mauler's" hometown of Stockholm, Sweden. Johnson emerged victorious from the bout, stopping Gustafsson with strikes in the very first round. Johnson is now the undisputed number one contender of the UFC's light heavyweight division, and will fight champion Jon Jones at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas, on 23 May, UFC 187.