UFC 142 Wrap-up: ‘Rumble’ Johnson Cut, Erick Silva Paid Win Bonus

Johnson (Pictured, file photo) will likely be released by the promotion following his third botched weight cut and a Saturday night loss to Vitor Belfort in Rio de Janeiro, UFC President Dana White said in a post-fight interview with Fuel TV.

“To be honest with you, we’re probably gonna cut him after this event,” said White. “Three strikes and you’re out. This is his third time that he hasn’t made weight. He’s the co-main event in a huge fight down here in Brazil and this one was a bad one.”

A former 170-pound standout who moved up to 185 to face Belfort, “Rumble” nonetheless hit the scale at a shocking 197 pounds during Friday’s official weigh-ins. As a result, Belfort was awarded 20 percent of Johnson’s purse, and Johnson was ordered to weigh no more than 205 pounds by noon on Saturday.

“Rumble Johnson did the damage to himself,” White asserted. “To be that unprofessional and not come in on weight, and to be that far off when you used to fight at 170, now you went to 185 pounds so you wouldn’t have trouble making weight, and this is your worst weight cut ever? That’s at a detriment to himself.”

Johnson previously missed weight for welterweight bouts against Rich Clementi in September 2007 and Yoshiyuki Yoshida in October 2009, though neither incident was as egregious as Saturday’s mishap. The 27-year-old fighter’s camp has claimed doctor-administered fluids were to blame for the mistake; Johnson, for his part, said that he explained the situation to his boss and felt there were “no bad vibes.”

“Everything seemed all good to me,” Johnson told Fuel TV in an interview prior to White’s anouncement. “I think he understood what happened, but what can I say, you know?”

Meanwhile, one current UFC welterweight was rewarded for his work on Saturday night, even if his record will not show a win.

White stated at the UFC 142 post-fight press conference that Brazilian 170-pounder Erick Silva will be paid his win bonus from Saturday’s bout against Carlo Prater. Silva was disqualified from the contest by referee Mario Yamasaki at the 29-second mark after dropping hammerfists on a dazed Prater, a few of which strayed to the illegal “Mohawk” area on the back of the head.

“We’re gonna pay him like he won the fight,” White stated. “I would appeal it if I was him.”

With no sanctioning body for MMA in Brazil, any appeal of Yamasaki’s decision will go through Mark Ratner, the UFC’s president of regulatory affairs.