John Dodson is a happy, fun character, and I actually think this is exactly the attitude needed to beat Demetrius Johnson. Demetrius Johnson is a fighter who moves a lot, keeps an incredible pace and relies on volume and variety of attacks for controlling his opponents and making them vulnerable. He is very quick and elusive and that’s why it’s very hard to land a knock-out strike on him. The way to beat him, in my opinion, is to control the cage, limit his movements and take him down and control him on the ground if possible. John Dodson was presented to us again and again as the only guy who can match Johnson’s speed. This, together with his fun, animated attitude made me believe that this is exactly the approach he would take for this fight. In the first fight he knocked Johnson down three times, but wasn’t able to finish him or even really hurt him, so I thought it’s obvious he wouldn’t focus on trying to do this, and instead try use his natural speed and movement to control the cage and shut down Johnson’s movement.
So when I saw him walk to the cage with a serious “determined” look, it immediately seemed to me like the wrong kind of attitude he should be coming into this fight with. This kind of attitude is suited to a guy who is looking to go after their opponent, hunt them down, and hurt them. Not to a guy who should be moving all over the place, attacking from all directions but avoiding throwing too much into every shot in order to save energy to last the entire fight.
And sure enough when the fight started, Johnson was doing his usual movement based voluminous attack, while Dodson was more flat-footed, looking to land big shots, not really utilizing his movement and speed, not trying to limit Johnson’s movement, not going forward or trying to pressure Johnson. Instead he just waited for Johnson to attack, hoping to land some big shot. Exactly the opposite of how a fight against Johnson could be won, in my opinion.
In the second round things started out the same, but then Dodson landed a take-down (after stuffing three attempts by Johnson). This is his chance, I thought. He is obviously losing on the feet. but he can still control Johnson on the ground. So what did he do? He just let Johnson get up. I was amazed. He could try and control Johnson on the ground and win a round this way, and he just gave it up. Just like that.
At that moment I understood that the fight is over. Dodson’s strategy was not one of trying to control Johnson, be on the offensive the whole time, shut him down. His entire strategy for the fight was standing and hoping to land one big blow. No movement, no control, no varied striking -just looking for a knockout.
This is the same mistake Junior Dos Santos made against Cain Velasquez in their second and third fights. He knocked him out once, so he was looking for that one big punch for the entirety of the next two fights and not really going for anything else. Dos Santos at least was successful the first time, so his obsession with this tactic is understandable, but if the first fight should have taught John Dodson anything is that knocking out Demetrius Johnson is next to impossible, so committing to this path is very dangerous.
At the end of the third round Johnson went for a flying knee and Dodson caught him mid-air with a perfectly placed straight left, almost like a repeat of the Fedor Emelianenko – Andrei Arlovski finish. This should have been a fight ending shot but instead Johnson just stood up and walked away, which showed that not only his movement and elusiveness make him so insusceptible to getting knocked-out, but his chin too. And yet, this is what Dodson decided to bet on as his only strategy for winning that fight.