Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) heavyweight Lavar Johnson, who also competed for Strikeforce and Bellator MMA, is currently jailed on felony charges of domestic violence, after allegedly beating his girlfriend to the point where she needed staples to close one of the wounds.
Johnson, who was released by UFC after failing a post-fight drug test in early 2013 (more on that here), plead not guilty to the assault charges but reportedly remains incarcerated in Fresno, Calif., on $120,000 bail. "Big" hasn't competed since suffering back-to-back submission losses on Spike TV.
While Johnson remains innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, it will be difficult to avoid comparisons to other high-profile domestic violence cases, like Jon "War Machine" Koppenhaver and Brett "Da Grim" Rogers.