5 MMA fighters who fought in the most weight divisions

#2 Anthony Johnson – Welterweight (170lbs), Middleweight (185lbs), Light-heavyweight (205lbs), Heavyweight (206lbs and above)

Anthony Johnson missed weight in his only UFC fight as a Middleweight

Now retired from MMA following a hugely successful UFC run as a Light-heavyweight, Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson initially made his debut in the promotion as a Welterweight, but it quickly became clear that 170lbs was a weight cut too far for him.

In just his second fight with the promotion, he missed the 170lbs weight limit – coming in at 177lbs – and was beaten by the much smaller Rich Clementi after running out of gas. Johnson managed to make 170lbs on four more occasions before another miss against Yoshiyuki Yoshida – this time he came in at 176lbs and dwarfed his opponent before knocking him out.

The writing was on the wall, but ‘Rumble’ still starved himself to make 170lbs three more times before deciding to make the move up to 185lbs in early 2012. Somehow, that move went even more wildly wrong and he missed weight for his fight with Vitor Belfort by a whopping 12lbs.

Belfort defeated him and due to his weight issues, the UFC decided to release him from his contract. He missed 185lbs for his first fight on the regional scene, and that was finally enough to force him up to 205lbs for good.

Johnson then won five straight – including a lone foray up to Heavyweight, where he defeated former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski by decision – and that was enough for the UFC to bring him back in 2014.

From there, the rest was history, as Johnson knocked out the likes of Alexander Gustafsson, Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira to become one of the most feared men in the world at 205lbs. He couldn’t quite get to the very top though – two losses to Daniel Cormier prevented him from winning the UFC title, and he retired in 2017.

Johnson fought in three weight classes in the UFC, albeit with one caveat – as he never made weight for his fight with Belfort, it could be argued that he never truly fought as a ‘true’ Middleweight.