I’m sure you won’t believe that Demetrious Johnson is now ranked No. 3 in the UFC.com ranking as of 20th April 2015. Most people would believe that Jon Jones, Cain Velasquez and Ronda Rousey would round up the top three but this is no longer the case. You might even think of Jose Aldo or Chris Weidman but Mickey Mouse is definitely not going to be on your list.
But seven wins in a row have helped Johnson start getting the recognition he always deserved. At UFC 186 he is going to be fighting Kyoji Horiguchi & will be desperate to prove that he deserves the number three spot.
Horiguchi is no slouch either. He has set up a nice streak of wins. He hasn’t lost a single match and has a 4-0 record at only 24 years of age. His potential really is intriguing. But I don’t think Horiguchi is ready to take on Johnson by a long shot.
The matchup is on the 25th of April 2015 and the main card ppv will start at 10 pm ET at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
As per Odds Shark, the challenger is pegged at a 6-1 underdog for this matchup. But when you actually look at it the odds are much worse than that. Horiguchi can only win this match via TKO or knockout. He basically has a puncher’s chance.
But Johnson has fought tough opponents with powerful strikes before as well. John Dodson and Joseph Benavidez weren’t easy challengers by a long shot. The only difference with Horiguchi though is his fighting style. He isn’t very orthodox and he can easily sneak in & out without needing to be faster than Johnson. Whether Johnson will allow him to stay on his feet though is a different story altogether.
All in all, this may just be too much for Horiguchi too early in his career. He may end up being a brilliant challenger in the flyweight division and may even be champion one day. But that day isn’t now. Horiguchi obviously disagrees with these odds saying that it’s the best time for him to get a title shot. All Horiguchi needs to do is use his karate style to get Johnson off his rhythm early on and things could go either way from there. If he can do that he may just be able to pick up a shock victory here. Personally, I believe Johnson will be able to pick up the win via TKO in the second round.
