Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, a well-known MMA fighter who had been battling an unspecified illness, died at 38. His cause of death was not immediately made public.
“For a guy who struck fear in so many people’s hearts Anthony Johnson was a caring person,” the now-retired Cormier wrote in a tweet. “From random text to check-ins during loss. What a person he was, Rumble will be missed. Sometimes life doesn’t seem fair.”
Johnson last fought at Bellator 258 in May 2021, scoring a knockout win over José Augusto Azevedo. That earned him a light heavyweight title shot against Vadim Nemkov the following month at Bellator 268, but Johnson was forced to withdraw with what was described as an undisclosed illness.
At that time, Johnson shared a post on Instagram in which he expressed regret that he couldn’t go into “detail about how ill I truly am.”
In October 2021, Johnson wrote that doctors had “pumped all bacteria from my stomach” into a container “the size of a football,” and he shared images of the procedure.
Johnson said in May he was starting to train again for a return to competition, promising a “different, more dangerous version of what you’ve already seen.” He posted a photo then that appeared to show he had lost a notable amount of body mass.
Late last month, Johnson’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, said that the fighter was “going through some health problems right now.”
“Very sad. I want everybody to pray for him,” Abdelaziz told ESPN. “Pray for Anthony; he’s not doing well. He’s very strong, spiritually, but pray for him.”
“RIP Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson,” UFC fighter Michael Chiesa wrote Sunday on Twitter. “One of the most prolific KO artists our sport has ever seen. My prayers go out to his family and everyone affected by this tragedy.”
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