Last month, #1 ranked UFC light-heavyweight contender Anthony Johnson was involved in a gym incident with a woman in Florida. The former title challenger posted an angry rant on Facebook where he described how an argument had led to ‘Rumble’ snatching a yoga mat from underneath the woman and throwing it across the room.
The 31-year-old deleted the comment shortly after posting it and apologized for his outburst the next day. “I said some pretty nasty things about a female from my gym while full of emotions (not a good idea) so I do wanna apologize to her for being rude as I was and not taking a break to relax after our argument,” Johnson said.
Rumble’s apology didn’t stop the UFC from launching a formal investigation into the matter with a third-party law firm. Following domestic abuse allegations from the mother of his children last year, Johnson was suspended from the UFC, but the promotion decided not to punish the former welterweight contender for his outburst in the gym.
The Blackzilian fighter discussed the incident with Ariel Helwani on Thursday.
“UFC did what they had to do,” Johnson said. “They did an investigation and…it is what it is, you know what I mean? Nobody was – everybody was – well, the media made a big stink about it, made it seem like it was more than what is was, and they tried to put the DV stuff there, and I’m like ‘Dude, I threw a yoga mat and talked some trash.’ Who hasn’t got mad and thrown something? I’m human; I’m allowed to get mad and have a tempter tantrum – hell, I didn’t kill anybody, I’m not gonna kill anybody.”
Anthony Johnson is set to take on British fighter Jimi Manuwa this weekend on September 5th at UFC 191 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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