UFC Names First HOF Inductee, Anthony Johnson Explains Retirement, Saturday's UFC Card
- Over the weekend, officials named the first 2017 UFC Hall of Fame inductee, as Urijah Faber will join the ranks. Faber announced his retirement this past December after a win over Brad Pickett.
During his career in both the WEC and UFC, "The California Kid" was widely-regarded as one of the top "smaller" weight fighters ever. He captured WEC gold and competed for the UFC title on a number of instances.
The 2017 UFC Hall of Fame ceremony is scheduled for this July during International Fight Week in Las Vegas. More inductees are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
- Anthony Johnson surprised everyone when he announced his retirement following a UFC 210 loss this past Saturday night to Daniel Cormier for the light heavyweight title. For "Rumble," it was a decision made well before he stepped inside the Octagon.
"It's just business," Johnson said. "I want to do something besides going to the gym everyday punching and kicking and rolling around with another dude. That (expletive) gets old. I've been doing this for so long, I've been in sports since I was 8, it's just time to move on to something different. I won't say better, but just different."
What that different might be remains a mystery, but Johnson did clear up rumors that he was joining the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL. Immediately after he announced his retirement, his Twitter page added a logo of the Rams and several mentions of the team on his bio.
"And no, I am not about to play football for the (Los Angeles) Rams," Johnson said. "Because everybody's hitting me up and saying some crazy stuff about (how) I'm about to play for the Rams. Why would I go into another sport that's the same thing as this, and you take all this impact and stuff? That's absolutely insane."
- The UFC heads to Kansas City this Saturday night and will bring UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson with them. Johnson will headline UFC on FOX 24 against Wilson Reis. The main card also features Michelle Waterson vs. Rose Namajunas and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza vs. Robert Whittaker.
Here is the current fight card:
MAIN CARD (FOX/8 p.m. ET)
UFC Flyweight Championship
Demetrious Johnson (c) vs. Wilson Reis
* Strawweight: Rose Namajunas vs. Michelle Waterson
* Middleweight: Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza vs. Robert Whittaker
* Featherweight: Jeremy Stephens vs. Renato Moicano
PRELIMINARY CARD (FOX/6 p.m. ET)
* Heavyweight: Roy Nelson vs. Alexander Volkov
* Bantamweight: Patrick Williams vs. Tom Duquesnoy
* Lightweight: Rashid Magomedov vs. Bobby Green
* Flyweight: Tim Elliott vs. Louis Smolka
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass/4:30 p.m. ET)
* Light Heavyweight: Devin Clark vs. Jake Collier
* Light Heavyweight: Andrew Sanchez vs. Anthony Smith
* Bantamweight: Aljamain Sterling vs. Augusto Mendes
* Welterweight: Nathan Coy vs. Zak Cummings
* Female Bantamweight: Ketlen Vieria vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith