UFC Fight Night 94: Poirier vs. Johnson (9/17/2016) - Hidalgo, TX (State Farm Arena)

[supremebve]

Dustin Poirier is the new Donald Cerrone.  Brilliant offensive fighters who have such shitty defense that they'll knock out everyone who stands if front of them, but they'll get rocked by anyone who understands how to move and counter.  Michael Johnson is one of the most physically talented fighters in the division, but he's so prone to dumb shit I don't think he's ever going to get to the top of that division. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 minute ago, supremebve said:

Dustin Poirier is the new Donald Cerrone.  Brilliant offensive fighters who have such shitty defense that they'll knock out everyone who stands if front of them, but they'll get rocked by anyone who understands how to move and counter.  Michael Johnson is one of the most physically talented fighters in the division, but he's so prone to dumb shit I don't think he's ever going to get to the top of that division. 

Given what I saw on TUF from MJ, I would never thought he would be a top ten lightweight but here we are. He wasn't good at very much, and he was more known for being Jeremy Stephens' homeboy he brought with him to Alliance MMA. Henri Hooft has really rounded out his striking. It's going to come down to the wrestling because I think he can be competitive with anyone when it comes to striking. If he's telling the truth that he has been dealing with a bad rotator cuff and labrum for several months prior to getting surgery, then I don't see why he couldn't be competitive with the best.

[TheVileOne]

This is what Johnson's been doing for several years though.  Knocking out legit dudes in one fight, and then getting dominated by Myles Jury or submitted by Reza Madadi in the next.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Dude, that was a career ago basically. He was just a traveling sparring partner then. The improvements he has made since then have been tremendous. Hell, Reza Madadi served an entire prison sentence between beating MJ and Michael Johnson becoming a really good fighter. That tells you how long ago that was.

[TheVileOne]

Hey maybe he will prove me wrong, but these streaks tend to be characteristic of his career.  Also let's be honest, Nate Diaz was hardly an elite world beater before the McGregor fight.  Johnson tends to have these nice little runs then goes on back-to-back losses.  

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

Hey maybe he will prove me wrong, but these streaks tend to be characteristic of his career.  Also let's be honest, Nate Diaz was hardly an elite world beater before the McGregor fight.  Johnson tends to have these nice little runs then goes on back-to-back losses.  

When he has had back-to-back losses really though since joining Blackzilians though? He got robbed in the Dariush fight. That should have been a W.  Other than that, the other losses came when he was fresh off of TUF and just some dude hanging out with Jeremy Stephens and going to random gyms. Shit, the gap between the Madadi loss and the bullshit loss to Dariush is two years and four months. And he's fighting top lightweights frequently. It's not like this dude shows up once a year and fights. You know how many losses your average top 20 lightweight can rack up if he is fighting every three months? Hell, look at the parity of the very top of the division now. Eddie Alvarez, without the help of the judges, would probably be below .500 in the UFC. He didn't have a breakout performance until his last fight. And he is the champion!

Plus, Nate Diaz is a quality fighter when he's motivated. Also, when he isn't dealing with major injury and actually trained for a fight. Keep in mind, Johnson was also dealing with a bum shoulder.

The dude fighting now would absolutely body Jonathan Brookins and like Paul Sass or whoever the hell he was fighting four and five years ago. I think you're just scanning his record without looking at the context.

This guy basically went from your average, underskilled Midwestern fighter with raw ability to Jeremy Stephens' friend who goes to gyms in Southern Cali with him to random lightweight sparring partner to Rashad Evans' mentee to the de facto # 2 or #3 guy at a major MMA gym. This didn't happen over the course of months. This literally took five years to happen.

[TheVileOne]

He's been training with the Blackzilians since 2012 before the losses to Jury and Madadi.  

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

He's been training with the Blackzilians since 2012 before the losses to Jury and Madadi.  

Oh you mean back when he was below Melvin Guillard in the pecking order but only slightly above Abel Trujillo (only because he hadn't fought in the UFC just yet)? Also, back when the coaching turnover was absolutely ridiculous.

[TheVileOne]

Well now you're just changing the parameters of the question.  I like Johnson a lot, and he's clearly a legitimate top 10 fighter.  

But lightweight is always going to be a highly competitive shark-infested division where if you had a tournament of about 32, you could expect a ton of upsets even from unassuming bottom seed competitors.  

It's a division where you essentially need 9 wins at this point to earn a title shot.  Tony Ferguson has gone 8-0 and he's 11-1 overall in the UFC lightweight division, no title shot.  Donald Cerrone had to fight and win eight times in a row to essentially earn a shot at the belt.  That's how competitive and stacked this division is right now.  

You basically need a string of really impressive performances to earn your shot at lightweight.  So let's see if Johnson can make that happen this time.

[Elsalvajeloco]

5 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Well now you're just changing the parameters of the question.  I like Johnson a lot, and he's clearly a legitimate top 10 fighter.  

No, I explained that before you said that. Do we both agree this man has improved vastly since losing to Myles Jury and Reza Madadi? Because if he didn't, he would be occupying Fight Pass prelim openers against dudes from TUF Brazil on a regular basis or out of the UFC fighting to get back in Titan FC. Apparently, we do because you think he's a legit top ten fighter.

There are reasons for his improvement, which I explained. I assume we also agree he got robbed against Dariush. So where are the losses between that is so "indicative" of his career? He went 2 years and 4 months without losing. If you take away Dariush, it is 2 years and 8 months. He lost to Nate Diaz, but I don't think that's shameful when (1) Nate is a top 15-20 lightweight which actually means something and (2) Nate decisively beat Donald Cerrone who has a decisive win over the champ (which validates reason 1).

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But lightweight is always going to be a highly competitive shark-infested division where if you had a tournament of about 32, you could expect a ton of upsets even from unassuming bottom seed competitors. 

So if that's the case, why would it be shocking that a legit top 10 lightweight beat the champ? That's my whole point. I'm not saying give MJ the belt already, but I am saying that we should be impressed that he has went on this run because lightweight is deep. Moreover, putting together this win streak proves he isn't this flake. Actually, it should prove the exact opposite.

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It's a division where you essentially need 9 wins at this point to earn a title shot.

You probably need a lot of wins, but it's also timing as well. Alvarez had two wins, and I saw many people score those two fights for his opponents. 

Who knows what this new regime is looking for? If anything, I would guess they prefer name value over the wins. If Khabib got the shot instead of Conor and they did the Johnson-Ferguson rematch, he would really only need one win. Essentially, he would just need to beat the dude he already beat. That's no easy feat to do it again, but we know it's very possible. So why would he need another additional six or seven wins? Ferguson and Cerrone also went against the middle of the pack lightweights while going on their runs. With the way he beat Poirier, I doubt that's justification to hit the reset button where he has to fight like Erik Koch or Chad Laprise to get another top name. He's probably going to fight another top dude most likely unless injuries get in the way.