Anthony Johnson

Anthony Johnson died on 13 November 2022, aged 38. His death was caused by organ failure resulting from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare and serious immune disorder. He had first told fans he was seriously ill in September 2021, and his manager Ali Abdelaziz asked for prayers for him weeks before his death.

Bellator MMA announced his passing on social media, saying the Bellator family was devastated, and the UFC published a tribute calling him one of the hardest punchers ever to grace the Octagon. Fighters he had faced and trained with, including longtime teammate Rashad Evans, paid tribute.

This page was first opened in November 2026, when Johnson's name returned to the news after comments by Andrei Arlovski about their 2013 fight drew criticism and an apology. Johnson died in 2022, not in 2026.

Anthony Kewoa Johnson was born on 6 March 1984 in Dublin, Georgia. He was raised by his grandparents, who formally adopted him when he was two, and he later named his grandfather and the American football player Walter Payton as his childhood heroes.

He attended West Laurens High School in Laurens County, Georgia, and then went to Lassen College in Susanville, California, on a wrestling scholarship. There he became a junior college national wrestling champion at 174 pounds in 2004. After college he worked as a bouncer, and at 20 a friend suggested he try mixed martial arts because of his wrestling background.

Johnson made his UFC debut at UFC Fight Night 10 in 2007, knocking out Chad Reiner 13 seconds into the first round after replacing an injured opponent on less than a week's notice. Fighting mainly at welterweight, he collected knockout wins over Tom Speer, Kevin Burns, Luigi Fioravanti, Yoshiyuki Yoshida and Charlie Brenneman, and earned Fight of the Night against Josh Koscheck. He repeatedly struggled to make weight, and after missing the middleweight limit badly for a 2012 bout with Vitor Belfort he was released by the UFC.

He rebuilt his career outside the UFC, beating David Branch and Esteves Jones in Titan Fighting Championships, then D.J. Linderman, Andrei Arlovski and Mike Kyle in the World Series of Fighting. The Arlovski win, in 2013, came at heavyweight.

Johnson returned to the UFC as a light heavyweight in 2014 and upset Phil Davis as a heavy underdog. He followed with knockouts of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alexander Gustafsson, Jimi Manuwa, Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira, the Teixeira fight lasting 13 seconds, and won five Performance of the Night awards. He met Daniel Cormier for the vacant light heavyweight title at UFC 187 in 2015, becoming the first man to knock Cormier down before losing by submission. Their rematch at UFC 210 in April 2017 also ended in a submission loss, and Johnson announced his retirement that night while ranked the UFC's number one light heavyweight contender.

After re-entering drug testing, he signed with Bellator MMA in December 2020. In May 2021 he survived a first round knockdown to knock out Jose Augusto in the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix, but in September 2021 he withdrew from his semi-final against champion Vadim Nemkov because of illness. It was his last fight. He also had a small acting role as a tournament fighter in the 2011 film Warrior.

Johnson had two children. After his first retirement he launched a CBD oil company, Competitive Body Development, and in 2019 he was appointed head of fighter relations for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.

His life outside the cage included legal trouble. In 2010 he pleaded no contest to a 2009 domestic battery charge and was given three years of probation, and later accusations of domestic violence in 2014 and 2019 did not lead to convictions, the 2019 case being dismissed after he agreed to attend an anger management course.

Johnson is remembered as one of the most feared strikers in mixed martial arts history, a fighter whose power could end a bout in seconds at any weight. His run from 2014 to 2016, with first round knockouts of leading contenders, made him the top challenger in the light heavyweight division, and his two title fights with Daniel Cormier remain among the best remembered of that era. Peers often spoke of his humility and of punching power that seemed effortless.