With Yoel Romero out of the Bellator Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will now face Jose Augusto at Bellator 258 on May 7.
Augusto, who trains with the Pitbull Brothers team according to Sherdog sports a 7-2 professional MMA record and is currently on a five-fight win streak. His last fight was against Jonathan Wilson at Bellator 255 where he won by first-round submission. The last-minute change was reported by ESPN Friday, stating that Grand Prix Alternate, Julius Anglickas was unavailable for the May 7 date.
This will be Johnson’s return to mixed martial arts competition after taking nearly four years off from the sport. The match with Romero was one of the most highly anticipated bouts in the Grand Prix but unfortunately, Romero did not clear his pre-fight medical testing according to a statement from Bellator MMA.
Johnson compiled a record of 22-6 during his career that he cemented fighting mostly in the UFC as well as the Worlds Series of Fighting (WSOF) and Titan Fighting Championships (Titan FC). Of his 22 wins, 16 come by way of knockout out with his last fight being a loss to then light-heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier.
Current Bellator Light-heavyweight champ, Vadim Nemkov, Corey Anderson and Ryan Bader (current Bellator heavyweight champion) all advanced in the tournament. The winner of Johnson and August would face Nemkov in July. It should be noted that one of Johnson’s wins during his run in the UFC is over Bader via knock out. So, there is another possible highly anticipated rematch there. With Johnson getting a new opponent, the Bellator 258 main fight card looks like this:
Bellator 258 Main Card
Bellator Bantamweight Championship Bout: Juan Archuleta(c) vs. Sergio Pettis
Bellator Light Heavyweight Grand Prix: Anthony Johnson vs. Jose Augusto
Patricky Freire vs. Peter Queally
Michael “Venom” Page vs. Derek Anderson
