The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has reinstated light heavyweight contender Anthony “Rumble” Johnson after allegations of domestic violence and stalking prompted them to suspend him in September.
On November 6, the judge threw out a civil case after conferring with the woman, Johnson’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of two of his children. The UFC also conducted an independent inquiry into the charges through its own retained law firm.
Johnson was suspended after reports surfaced that the woman had filed a police report alleging that friends of Johnson and Johnson himself were harassing/stalking her and that she was “in fear.” The woman further alleges that a 2012 altercation between the two resulted in her “losing two of her teeth.” It also emerged that he pled no-contest to a 2009 matter and received probation.
Johnson denied the allegations.
Johnson was suspended the same week the UFC reversed field a second time on Thiago Silva. They reinstated Silva after his February charges of aggravated assault were dropped in September. After videos surfaced of him appearing to converse with his wife, Thaysa, while trying to investigate an “intruder” (it is speculated that her lover was in the home, hiding), the UFC cut him again. The Silva severance coincided with the Johnson allegations. Coincidentally, both the Silva videos and the Johnson story surfaced the same week as the second Ray Rice video.
Johnson, the number-three contender, was scheduled to fight number-one contender Alexander Gustafsson at UFC on FOX 13 prior to the suspension, making him next in line to fight the winner of the Daniel Cormier–Jon Jones title fight January 3, 2015.
The substance of the 2012 alleged altercation has not been verified, and the substance of the accuser’s conversation with the judge has not been disclosed.
