Dana White was furious, judging incompetency leading to a fractured tournament that would now have to replay one of its most important bouts.

Ian McCall, given his strong showing down the stretch in his first UFC fight, was seen as the favourite going into the rematch with Johnson (held three months later as the headline bout on the third UFC on FX card) and the opening of the first round was seen as the beginning of the fourth round we should have seen in their prior bout.

The rematch couldn’t have been more different than the first: a new and improved D.J was more improved in every facet of the game. McCall was game, but unable to replicate any of his success from their first fight.

Johnson controlled McCall against the cage more, pressuring his biceps and not allowing him to spin out. D.J also used any attempt by McCall to get off the cage as momentum for his own takedowns (whereas McCall was the stronger wrestler in their first fight).

Rather than raiding McCall and leaving him prone to counter punches, Johnson’s raids would be followed by spells of educated movement, forcing McCall—a decent counter-striker—to come forward. Whereas the usually sharp counter-boxer McCall whiffed on his punches in their first fight, Johnson—being much quicker—was able to leap forward and crack ‘Uncle Creepy’ with a counter right in the first round that sent him down as quick as the punch had been thrown. McCall’s takedown attempts were either shucked off or met with a slippery guard that McCall couldn’t stay in for long.

In the second, McCall tried to pressure, but when he got in the pocket and had any success he was met with a new wrinkle to Johnson’s game that would set him in good stead for the rest of his career: the double collar tie. Johnson would become increasingly proficient at this technique as his career went on; for now, it’s just a point of interest to see him trying to work it into his game.

While McCall countered Johnson’s first attempt at this with a short uppercut that forced the diminutive Washington native back onto his heels, McCall would get cracked with elbows in the clinch and found the same attempts to wrestle that worked so well in the first fight completely dismissed by a fighter that looked faster, more aware, and more intelligent than the one he had faced three months before.

McCall walked off in disgust—with himself presumably—as the unanimous decision was read out.

Johnson reflected on the fight to UFC.com:

“I felt a lot better and I even looked bigger because my body held on to its water and nutrients better. It was a great fight. I'm glad I had those two fights with Ian McCall because two high-caliber fights like that will get you prepared for anybody you fight next. I wanted to show the world that I had been working on my takedown defense, and if you take me down I'll get right back up. Obviously, I would have loved to have knocked him out, have him go lights out from that one punch, but Ian McCall is a tough guy. I want to be the best in the world and I think I showed that in that fight. I'm getting better at 125.”

As Johnson said after the fight to the UFC: “I got that moustache out of my life now and now I gotta’ go to Sexy Joe-B”

The Final

“Joseph and I are going to go out there and put on a great fight and it's going to be one of the best fights of the year" — Demetrious Johnson to UFC.com

Demetrious Johnson was wrong. He and Joseph Benavidez put on—at least in the eyes of this writer—one of the best fights of all time.

As a boxing historian, there are some fights I revisit. My label for these bouts is ‘two-way technicals’ and they feature two highly-skilled combatants going at it, nip-and-tuck all the way to the final bell, lots of adjustments being made and the brain working twice as hard as the hands and feet. They’re not stinkers either, or fencing matches: they’re the rare fight between technicians that result in a feast for the eyes.

Examples of this kinda’ fight: Tony Canzoneri vs. Kid Chocolate I; the bouts between James Toney and Mike McCallum (particularly the first two) and—while we’re with McCallum—the second bout between the Jamaican legend and the genius from Zaire, Sumbu Kalambay. All-time great Ezzard Charles versus all-time great Harold Johnson. Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez vs. Juan Francisco Estrada. For a more recent example? Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez versus Gennady Golovkin II.

With boxing, there’s a rich history of all-time great fighters and a wealth of footage to parse through in order to discover and catalogue these two-way technical classics.

I can think of a few in MMA too, where well-rounded operators fought tooth and nail, each getting the upper hand only for it to swing the other way.

If you asked me to pick a bunch, the first fight between Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez would always be near the top.

“I’m gonna’ test everything about him, his heart, his chin, his cardio”, said Johnson, “I’m the fastest guy that he’s ever fought”.

Joseph Benavidez said before the fight:

“The hard work’s done, I’ve done everything I can possibly do to be a champion you know. I ask myself that every day: Did I do what it takes to be a champion today? And every day I felt like I did. It’s been a great camp, the camp felt different and that’s the hard part, the preparation is the hard part. And tonight? It’s fun”

Surely more fun to watch than it was to take part: at the end of five rounds, Benavidez was left marked up, having given everything he had and being met with even more in return.

In the first round, Benavidez showed the ability to work within Johnson’s clinch, an aspect of the game that had stifled Ian McCall somewhat. He also showed quicker hands and feet, and a want to cut angles and make the Octagon a harder place to navigate for the speedy Johnson.

Less than a minute in, Joe Rogan—an early cheerleader for the flyweight division—gave the little guys a thumbs up:

“Well this is already highlighting what I love about this division, just the speed and the technique. When you talked about these guys having fought bigger men their entire career, there’s something that happens in jiu-jitsu where you’re in class you roll with everybody, and a lot of the smaller guys they become much, much more technical because they’re constantly dealing with the big guys. And then the bigger guys they just kinda’ muscle things. And then somewhere along the line the smaller guys start tapping the bigger guys, the reason being that technique is always much more important than strength. And no one is more technical than these two guys”

That last sentence would prove accurate as both men went tit-for-tat over the next twenty-five minutes.

Johnson’s defensive radar really started to show up as a major asset in this fight, able to slip Benavidez’s punches on the exit, and not fall for similar framing techniques deployed against him that he used himself. In the first round, Benavidez faked a right cross, then attempted the right cross: no dice. Johnson felt he had his timing down, and was—you guessed it—met with a right cross as he attempted to close the distance. In that small sequence in round one you can see Benavidez adjusting to get his timing down on an elusive opponent.

Benavidez showed off his craftiness more than once in the opening stanza: timing one of Johnson’s patented left crosses, the Team Alpha Male fighter slipped to the outside, controlled Johnson’s head with his own left and fired off a right hand counter to the body. It seems innocuous enough when viewed in real time, but it’s MMA striking of the highest level.

After this sequence, Johnson started using exaggerated feints to better disguise his attacks, quickly switching up between kicks and punches at all levels to keep Benavidez guessing and give him less time to process what was coming back at him.

Right at the end of the first round, with his attacks being stifled, Benavidez rolled for a kneebar. Nothing there.

In the second round, Johnson showed off his mastery in the pocket, and his deft head movements and reflexive defense: in one sequence early in the second round, Johnson avoids a Benavidez rush, ties him up in the clinch and fires off a knee to the body, then ties Benavidez up mid-spinning back fist attempt before firing off a knee and regaining the centre of the cage all within the same sequence. Benavidez was made to look sloppy, and got off no offence of note.

Johnson started building on his own offence, throwing a nasty inside leg kick after feinting with his hands. Benavidez’s response was an ugly naked kick that Johnson saw coming a mile off.

Benavidez wasn’t stupid though: immediately after he pawed his way in behind a half-jab feint then threw the same kick. Close, but not close enough, Johnson’s foot speed being the difference.

Benavidez then pivoted into a low kick behind two looping hooks that did land, that big brain of his processing the information quicker than Johnson’s athleticism could keep up with.

At least for a moment.

Bear in mind, the preceding section about the second round has all happened within the first two minutes. There was so much happening in this fight that it was hard to keep up.

And I won’t try to: suffice to say the rest of the fight went much the same way, with both men trying to outsmart the other. Caught kicks, counter-punches, fast-paced scrambles, the increasingly bloody mug of Benavidez, and a wild right-hand from Benavidez in an exchange in the fourth round that sent Johnson sprawling leading to what appeared to be a fight-ending mounted guillotine.

It was at this moment Johnson showed not just his potential, but his championship class: patient, calm, and fighting for hand control as Benavidez tried to wrench him into the realm of unconsciousness, before escaping and attacking Benavidez’s leg instantaneously.

In the fifth, Johnson displayed not just his championship class, but his potential greatness: pivoting off at angles, bouncing in and out of range, feinting with every body part, seeking creative ways to open Benavidez up for sharp, accurate shots. Johnson exploded into a takedown, stuffed Benavidez’s attempts and kicked him to the body as he rose.

Benavidez might have been one of the more technical fighters the sport of MMA had ever seen, but he was a step behind Johnson, and that’s what mattered, with ‘Mighty Mouse’ taking a split decision to become the first ever UFC flyweight champion.

In amongst all that wondrous action, something strange happened, something that would come back to haunt the new champion—and the still new division—for the rest of his career.

It is something that Joe Rogan twice expressed bemusement at, first confused whether the crowd reaction in the third round was actually directed toward the fight, and vocally expressing the same sentiment in the fifth:

“More boos, this is really incredible. I would have never expected that, this is a very exciting fight. Some people just wanna’ see blood though, they don’t really care about technique, they don’t care about skilled guys going at it”

The red painting splashed over Benavidez’s mug obviously wasn’t enough for the Toronto crowd cageside for UFC 152. They were obviously much too restless waiting for Jon Jones to defend his light-heavyweight title against Vitor Belfort to appreciate one of the greatest fights the sport of mixed martial arts had seen at that point.

Rogan asked Johnson what he felt about being the first ever flyweight champion, and the ever-humble ‘Mighty Mouse’ seemed to still be taking it all in:

“Joseph is a great competitor, and I trained hard ya’ know, I dedicated myself to the sport. Yeah man…it happened I guess”, going on to say, “It means the world, I’ve still gotta’ improve a lot of things, and like I said, if I become champion the same thing’s gonna’ happen: I’m gonna’ go home and rest, and get back in the gym and get ready for the next battle”.

The UFC would clearly need to find some strong competition in their still-fledgling division for their newly-minted champion. Demetrious Johnson was so fast, even the quick Joseph Benavidez couldn’t get close to him consistently. Johnson had outscored the TAM product in significant strikes and takedowns, and survived a guillotine that had finished many a fighter.

The only fighter that would be able to beat Johnson was surely inconceivable: someone as fast as him? Someone faster than him? Someone more athletic than him? Someone who would actually land on him more than once a fight?

That fighter surely didn’t exist.



A Magician Appears

Before the fourteenth series of The Ultimate Fighter, John ‘The Magician’ Dodson had been a journeyman, picking up five losses, bouncing between two weights and not even able to win a fringe title like the ‘Ultimate Warrior Challenge’ flyweight title (no, me neither).

Fighting in Japan for Shooto for a single fight (only Dodson’s second) all over the States at small-town shows, Dodson’s last bout before he got accepted onto ‘TUF’ was against a fighter who would become a notable flyweight himself, John Moraga.

The bout was held in the Dominican Republic. Dodson was not paid, and later claimed the fight went well over the 15-minute limit for a three-minute round.

In short, Dodson was nowhere near the big leagues.

Even getting onto the UFC’s flagship TV show was no guarantee of success, and Dodson was a strange, goofy character, with a smile as wide as his muscular shoulders, and all manner of acrobatic celebrations coming across as strange in the quiet, scantly-populated glorified gym fights on the show.

But during the show, Dodson’s fighting did more talking for him than his exuberant personality. A physical tank at bantamweight, he was nonetheless dwarfed by the humongous (but basic) Johnny Bedford, which made the front-hand feint and accurate left cross that felled the big man like a tree shot by an anti-aircraft gun even more impressive on the small screen.

Fighting his way through to the final (no more exhibitions) Dodson would find himself across the cage from the favourite: good-looking, young and talented Team Alpha Male prospect T.J Dillashaw.

In a result that in some way looks much like Henry Cejudo’s bowling over of (the now all-time great) Dillashaw nearly eight years later, Dodson’s handspeed saw Dillashaw caught and overwhelmed in the opening round. Improbably, the journeyman who just one (official) fight before had not even been paid, was the ultimate fighter.

And the UFC were opening a new division more suited to him. A tank at bantamweight, making the cut would be arduous, but Dodson would be a physical freak at 125lbs. Like Demetrious Johnson, Dodson had a clear speed advantage against the bigger guys, but was that quick he would still be one of the fastest fighters on the roster being assembled on-the-fly (no pun intended) a weightclass below.