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The UFC’s smallest champion once again proved to be its most dominant champion.
Mighty Mouse
Demetrious Johnson outclassed and outpointed challenger Ali Bagautinov for five rounds to defend his title for the fourth consecutive time via a convincing unanimous decision win at UFC 174 in Vancouver Canada. With the win, Johnson remains the only flyweight champion in UFC history and established himself as one of its most dominant champions.
The UFC recognizes Jon Jones as the top pound for pound fighter in the sport. Johnson is fourth on the list behind featherweight champion Jose Aldo and heavyweight king Cain Velasquez. But Johnson’s dominance of the flyweight division since its inception has been very one-sided. And that’s the reason why the 5-3 125lbs champion is called the Mighty Mouse.
The Dominator
Against the game and hard hitting Bagautinov, Mighty Mouse was the Dominator. He bested his challenger in every category and avoided his biggest weapon. Bagautinov was a former combat sambo champion and he possessed one punch knockout power and blazing hard fists. But none of that showed in the face of Johnson, who looked as fresh as he was before the bout started. He even looked like he was ready to go for another five rounds after the fight.
Bagautinov was a beaten man. His face was swollen and bleeding. Before the final round, he looked and waved his arms to the crowd in an attempt to pump himself up. But by that time, there were already empty seats in the house that saw an attendance of 13,506. Johnson was clearly in the driver’s seat and only a knockout would’ve stopped the Might Mouse’s reign.
Johnson chopped away at Bagautinov’s lead leg with inside leg kicks in the first two rounds. He nailed Bagautinov with vicious knees to the body and sharp elbows to the face during clinches. He avoided takedown attempts and moved around the octagon like a blur to avoid Bagautinov’s power punches.
Bagautinov scored on a body slam in the third round, but the Mighty Mouse was up and standing in a couple of seconds. The Dagestani tried his best in the last two rounds to catch Johnson with a clean shot, but aside from the one big punch in the fourth which DJ took easily, Johnson was unbelievably elusive. In the final round, Johnson landed a flurry of punches while holding Bagautinov at the fence.
As the final bell sounded, it was another clear victory for the champion. All three judges scored the bout 50-45 in favor of Demetrious Johnson. He remained unbeaten as a flyweight and improved his overall record to 20-2-1 with 4 KO’s and 7 submissions.
Next in Line
Next for Mighty Mouse could be a familiar face and name. John “The Magician” Dodson beat John Moraga via TKO last week and he is the consensus number one challenger for Johnson. UFC president Dana White also alluded to Dodson as the next challenger. But Mighty Mouse Johnson said that while “he will take on all comers” he would like to face a “new challenge” next.
Johnson fought a tough battle with Dodson in January 2013, but he clearly beat Dodson via unanimous decision. Johnson added that there are “a lot of new challenges in the weight class” that he needs to fight. He said that he has already overcome Dodson and that he prefers to fight new opponents. He singled out Zach Makovsky when pressed for a name. But Johnson said he’ll leave it to the UFC to choose his next opponent. He believes that the UFC does a great job at match-making.
But even then, with a dominant champion like Demetrious Johnson, Match-making becomes mis-match making most of the time.
