welterweight bout between hard-hitting Anthony Johnson (5-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC) and surprising UFC newcomer Kevin Burns (6-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) will take place at the recently announced UFC Fight Night 14 event on July 19.
Sources close to both fighters alerted MMAjunkie.com (
UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) of the bout, saying it was originally slated for a UFC 87 event in August.
UFC Fight Night 14, which takes place at The Palms Casino Resort, features UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin in a non-title light-heavyweight bout. The event airs live on Spike TV.
Johnson, an athletic and dangerous striker, most recently defeated "The Ultimate Fighter 6" runner-up Tommy Speer via violent first-round knockout. He made his octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 10 and earned a 13-second knockout of Chad Reiner, but Johnson suffered a second-round submission loss to Rich Clementi in a subsequent fight.
He'll now meet Burns, who was a late replacement for an injured Ryo Chonan earlier this month at UFC 85. There, the Iowa-based fighter scored an upset of Roan Carneiro via second-round submission -- a performance that earned him a $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus.
Like some other fights booked for UFC Fight Night 14, which was hastily put together to counter the "Affliction: Banned" pay-per-view event, the Johnson-Burns fight was simply rescheduled from a later event onto the July 19 card. It's not yet known if the fight will appear on the televised portion of the night's card.
For the latest on UFC Fight Night 14, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.
So, who takes this one........ to me, Burns via sub early in the 2nd
Anthony Johnson VS Kevin Burns
Linear Mode
