MMA fighter John Dodson promised that his second chance to fight Demetrious Johnson would not be the same as the first time. That vow actually happened, but it didn’t go in Dodson’s favor.
This time, Johnson proved to everyone that he deserves to get the flyweight champion MMA title by defeating Dodson. Johnson did so great during this fight that a lot of fans were taken aback with what happened inside the octagon. Unlike the first fight where Dodson was able to throw strong punches during every first part of the round, Johnson was able to consistently dominate the entire fight, which resulted to the unanimous decision in his favor; Johnson has now seventh title defenses under his belt.
“I had more success in the first fight because both of us were going in there not knowing what each other’s strengths were. This time we went in there more cautious. He was more intelligent this time. I was trying to defend more takedowns and he was just trying to push that pace, and DJ did a wonderful job about that. He came at me, and my hat is off to him. You can’t sit there and badmouth him because this man is still the champion and he did something that everyone saw him doing. I couldn’t stop him,” Dodson said during the UFC 191 post conference.
Johnson, who has a record of 23-2-1, was able to set his pace during the first few seconds of the MMA fight was able to maintain it throughout the entire 25 minutes. He used the best of his takedowns, strikes, and even clinchwork to get his opponent down.
Based on the FightMetric statistics, Dodson was able to land successful 108 hits, while Johnson had a total of 163 hits. Johnson was also able to successfully takedown Dodson four times, as compared to Dodson who was able to do just once. Johnson was on the safe side all throughout the MMA fight, doing successful clinches which made Dodson hobble inside the octagon while taking punches and elbow hits from him.
“Both of us have evolved, and we’ve shown that. We’ve shown that he has more aggressive power coming at me, and he landed a lot more shots to my face. I look like a monster. I look like (Rafael) dos Anjos. But, hindsight, I can come back stronger. Since everybody keeps talking about this glass ceiling, I’m going to break through it. I’m going to make sure that I come back and come back stronger. If Dana (White) gives me the opportunity to go ahead and beat up a bunch of people that seem worthy to fight Demetrious, I will do it, and I will make sure I can make another title run at this again,” Dodson said.
“I can’t blame anything that’s gone on this whole week, calling it a distraction or motivation. The only thing is that I came out here, I performed my best, and I did everything that I need to do. I’m excited that I got to see and hold my baby for the first time, and not only that, I got to celebrate my mom’s birthday yesterday. So it was awesome. I had a tremendous week.
“Even tonight was still an amazing night. It might have not gone my way, but it’s still exciting. I saw millions of fans out there still cheering me on, saying that I’m awesome, and everybody gave me daps. There is nothing wrong with what happened today besides Demetrious Johnson still being the champion. He’s still a great MMA fighter. I didn’t win this fight, but next time I’m coming out a lot stronger and a lot harder. You guys will see me back again, with a better face looking sexier than ever,” Dodson added.