Following the UFC 142: "Aldo vs. Mendes" event that took place last night (Sat., Jan. 14, 2012) at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UFC President Dana White visited with Jon Anik for the post-fight show on Fuel TV.
And during his interview, White was quoted as saying on FUEL TV (via Larry Pepe) the UFC is "probably going to cut Anthony Johnson" following his first round submission loss to Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of the evening.
"To be honest with you, we're probably gonna cut him after this event. Three strikes and you're out. This is his third time that he hasn't made weight. He's the co-main event in a huge fight down here in Brazil and this one was a bad one. Rumble Johnson did the damage to himself. To be that unprofessional and not come in on weight, and to be that far off when you used to fight at 170, now you went to 185 pounds so you wouldn't have trouble making weight, and this is your worst weight cut ever? That's at a detriment to himself."
It's not surprising, really. Johnson put the world's largest fight promotion in a highly undesirable position when he came in an unbelievable 11-pounds overweight for his middleweight contest, jeopardizing the bout just one day before it was scheduled to take place.
Can you imagine how the Brazilian fans would have felt if they were told their beloved "Phenom" would no longer be on the card because his opponent couldn't make weight? And what's worse, he couldn't even come within 10 pounds of it?
Fortunately for all involved, it was agreed upon that Johnson would simply need to weigh in under 205-pounds a certain number of hours before the event for the fight to go on and he was able to do so. As it turned out, all the weight cutting took its toll on "Rumble," who gassed after just a few minutes of action and was choked out inside the first round.
Now, after losing once the competition was raised yet again, and failing miserably to make weight despite giving him an extra 15 pounds to work with (he normally competes at welterweight if you can believe it), Johnson is likely gone from the UFC.
Maybe Strikeforce has an opening in its welter middle light heavyweight division.