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UFC 186: Johnson vs. Horiguchi
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 4/21/2015  at  6:18:00 AM
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UFC 186: Johnson vs. Horiguchi

Saturday, Apr. 25th – 10:00 p.m. ET
Montreal, Quebec

Demetrious Johnson (21-2-1) vs. Kyoji Horiguchi (15-1-0)

UFC Flyweight Title Bout
Line: N/A

Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson will look to defend his title for the sixth time when he takes on Kyoji Horiguchi at UFC 186.

The flyweight title has been held by just one man, Demetrious Johnson, who grabbed it back at UFC 152 in late 2012 and since has defended his belt five times. He has used a multitude of different ways to get these wins, twice winning by unanimous decision in five rounds, twice by submission and once by a first round knockout. The 5’3”, 125-pound fighter has just two losses to his name, both coming by decision with the last one coming in October of 2011. Johnson is widely considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the history of the sport and will look to continue that dominance at this event. His opponent, Kyoji Horiguchi, was the bantamweight champion in the Shooto circuit in Japan and made his way over to UFC in late 2013. He has fought four times in the states, with three of the fights being in the flyweight division, and came away the victor each time. Twice he won by decision while getting the other two via knockout (punches) in the first seven minutes of the match. That is typically the way that he goes with nine of his career 15 wins coming by TKO mainly with punches. He is a second degree black belt and should be able to give Johnson quite a fit in this fight.

“Mighty Mouse” has been absolutely dominant in his recent fights as he defends his title, landing 361 significant strikes compared to just 135 from his opponent. Overall he averages 3.54 significant strikes per minute and lands them with 52% accuracy. This is not what typically puts him above his opposition by so much, but rather it is his ability to get the takedown and wear them down. He gets 3.24 takedowns per 15 minutes in the octagon and has 18 total takedowns in his five defenses of this title. His most recent defense was one of his more impressive as he won in the second round with a Kimura submission. He landed 27-of-43 significant strikes (62%) against Chris Cariaso back at UFC 178 and let him only get in six strikes. His defense has been great as well, as he deflects 66% of strike attempts against him and 64% of takedown attempts. Johnson has been one of the more dominant fighters in the history of the UFC and it is hard to imagine him losing to anybody.

If anybody can give Johnson a run for his money for the title, it is Horiguchi as he brings a flurry of punches to the octagon. He gets in 3.99 significant strikes per minute and pummeled Louis Gaudinot 44 times, including landing 68% of his attempts at his head. He doesn’t have the best accuracy with a mere 48% of his strikes hitting the mark, but his eight career wins by punches shows how solid those landed punches are. While he is throwing a ton of hits, he is also doing a fantastic job at avoiding his opponent and takes a mere 1.66 strikes per minute, deflecting 69% of his opposition’s attempts. His weakness could be the takedown and he only has been able to defend against them 50% of them time, hitting the mat twice in his four matches in UFC. Johnson also won’t have to worry about submissions as Horiguchi has yet to earn a win with this tactic and has yet to even attempt one in his four UFC battles. He will need to land a timely punch in order to take down the champion in this one.


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