UFC President Dana White announced recently that UFC Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson will be facing John Dodson for a second time in his next title defense. Johnson has been awaiting his next challenge since his recent win over Kyoji Horiguchi where he won the match with the latest submission in the UFC, at the 4:59 mark of the fifth and final round. The official date has not been announced as of yet, but the bout is expected for the October timeframe.
The two first met back in January of 2013, and that bout saw Johnson win a comfortable unanimous decision. Since that bout, Dodson has gone 3-0 to fight his way back to the top of the division. Since beating Dodson back at the UFC on FOX 6 show, Johnson has gone about cleaning out the flyweight division, making five successful title defenses and seeming to increase his dominance with every match.
[related_post_one]
The odds have not been posted yet, but look for Johnson to be a strong favorite heading into the fight, even more so than he was heading into the first fight. For all his innovative technique and flashy moves, Dodson will still be coming into this fight with more or less the same game plan of attacking. Dodson does have knockout power in his hands as he has shown on more than one occasion, but against a fighter with the skill level and defense of Johnson, that will probably not be enough. Dodson will still have to make up for height and reach deficiencies against Johnson, and that is something the champion is not used to. In the end, however, Dodson is going to have to take his game to the next level if he is going to avoid losing twice to Johnson.
If Johnson gets by Dodson again, look for the UFC to fast track Olympic Gold Medal wrestler Henry Cejudo into the next title shot. Beyond that Johnson is really looking like a candidate to move up in weight to 135 pounds, as he has campaigned in that weight before and he will have thoroughly cleaned out the 125-pound class.
