UFC Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer has incurred the wrath of Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson over a remark on his podcast in which he suggested that fighters outside of the UFC were “irrelevant.”
Buffer made the comment on his ‘It’s Time’ podcast while discussing the possibility that heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou might part ways with the UFC when his current contract ends.
“It would be stupid to go your own way. The UFC is the NFL,” Buffer said in reference to Ngannou. “No offense to other organizations, but you become irrelevant when you leave the UFC after a while. To a degree.”
While he wasn’t the target of the comment, former UFC title challenger, Johnson who has since moved on to fight for Bellator, was less than happy to hear of Buffer’s comments and let him know about it on social media.
“Bruce needs to stay off crack,” Johnson wrote on Instagram. “How’s anything irrelevant when providing food and shelter for family?
“Oh, by the way, I got paid way more for moving to another organization.
“Bruce has his guaranteed money so he can talk. FIGHTERS have to wait and actually entertain people when they get the chance to make some money.”
Johnson was able to get out of UFC contract to sign for Bellator and was originally supposed to fight another former star of the octagon Yoel Romero in the quarter-finals of a 205lb grand-prix last year.
However, when his opponent pulled out due to an injury he went on to KO a late replacement in Jose Augusto instead.
‘Rumble’ was then set to fight Vadim Nemkov in the semi-finals later in 2021, but had to withdraw from the tournament for undisclosed reasons and is now planning to return to action this year.
