The Olympic Gold Medalist is in for the fight of his life against the flyweight champion.
UFC 197 is right around the corner and will be headlined by a bout between light heavyweight standouts Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. The two have a bitter rivalry stretching back years and could be one of the biggest and most anticipated rematches in UFC history. That being said, the co-main event could be far more interesting than the main event itself. Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is perhaps the UFC’s most dominant champion with numerous title defenses under his belt, all of them proving that the flyweight champ is perhaps one of the more difficult puzzles to solve in MMA. With so many title defenses to his name, you’d think that Johnson has already done enough to clean out his entire weight division. But with his upcoming title defense set to be against Henry Cejudo, it’s possible that all bets are off. Henry Cejudo is unlike any challenge Johnson has faced so far in his career. He’s an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling and has some pretty competent striking to back up his grappling skills. That being said, it’s hard to consider Cejudo to be a major threat to Johnson. Thus far in his UFC career, Cejudo hasn’t shown any particular skill that is superior to the champion. Cejudo’s striking is good, but it’s less dynamic and more predictable than Johnson’s. The Olympian doesn’t mix in feints into his attacks and he has a bad habit of leaving his head on the center line when he pushes forward with attacks. His wrestling is the best part of his game, but he still hasn’t put things together enough to mix both his striking and his takedowns together. In order to catch Johnson off guard and potential land the takedown, Cejudo will need to move from striking into wrestling or wrestling into striking seamlessly. In order to beat Johnson you have to disrupt his movement and forward momentum. As of now, Cejudo doesn’t appear like he has the fight savvy to pull that off. Bottom line, a lot of people are saying that this is Demetrious Johnson’s toughest test at flyweight to date because of Cejudo’s wrestling ability. For my money, Johnson has faced fighters with more difficult games, namely the talented Kyoji Horiguchi, Joseph Benavidez, and John Dodson, all of whom have been able to mix their games up far better than Cejudo. Like I always say, time will tell who will walk away victorious. But if I were a betting man, my money would definitely have to be on the champion. Do you think Henry Cejudo stands a chance? Follow Generation Iron MMA on Facebook and Twitter. Also, be sure to share, like, and comment to show your support.
Jonathan Salmon is a writer, martial arts instructor, and geek culture enthusiast. Check out his Twitter and Facebook to keep up with his antics.
