UFC 187: Cormier vs. Johnson

Daniel Cormier (15-1-0) vs. Anthony Johnson (19-4-0)

Daniel Cormier and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson look to grab the vacant Light Heavyweight title when they do battle at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Cormier was selected to go against Johnson, the original challenger against Jon Jones for the title, after going 4-1 since joining the UFC. He earned those wins in a few different ways, twice by unanimous decision and once each by TKO (Punches) and submission (Rear-naked chokehold). His most recent bout was also for this title when he took on the aforementioned Jones at UFC 182 and took a loss by unanimous decision. He still earned “Fight of the Night” honors for the five-round match and in his previous fight against Dan Henderson earned “Beatdown of the Year” honors with his submission in the third round. Cormier is a former bronze medalist in the 2007 freestyle wrestling World Championships and is also a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, giving him plenty of skills to grab the belt. Johnson has to be relieved that he is no longer facing the nearly unbeatable Jones when he goes up against Cormier behind nine straight wins. Three of those have been in the UFC and he has been dominant with four of his past six fights being decided by a knockout in the first round. His knockout ability was in full display in his last bout against Alexander Gustafsson when he earned the “Performance of the Night” after taking him down with punches after just two minutes and 15 seconds. The 31-year-old is a former champion wrestler and should give Cormier quite a fight with his ability to get a quick knockout.

Cormier’s reach is a full half foot shorter (72”) than his opponents in this one, but that does not keep him from being aggressive as he lands 3.78 significant strikes per minute at a 48% accuracy. Before being dominated to the tune of a 92-58 disadvantage in significant strikes against Jones in his last outing, Cormier was able to out hit his first four UFC opponents 201-55 and the reason he had the beatdown of the year against Dan Henderson was due to the fact that he laid down 50 significant strikes with two takedowns and three submission attempts compared to a meager six strikes against him in more than two rounds. He also has no issue taking his opposition to the mat and has done so an average of 1.91 times per 15 minutes with six in his last three victories. It is evidence that he does not take too much punishment in the octagon as he deflects 65% of strikes attempted against him, with his opponents landing just 1.70 strikes per minute. He also uses his somewhat stocky form in order to stay upright, defending against takedowns 81% of the time with Jones being the only UFC opponent to get one against him in his five matches. Cormier is a very tough fighter to get an advantage against and it should be a fairly even match with Johnson.

Johnson has been amazing in his three bouts since coming back to the UFC in mid-2014 with his last two matches ending in a knockout within the first three minutes. He has taken little in terms of hits in those fights, allowing opponents to get in a mere 31 significant strikes and when he went toe-to-toe with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was able to avoid his hits as he took him down with a punch in just 44 seconds. Overall he is getting 3.33 significant strikes per minute and has defended against strikes 66% of the time with them landing a putrid 1.65 per minute. Although he hasn’t had a takedown in his last four fights, it is a strong part of his repertoire as he averages 2.53 takedowns per 15 minutes and defends against them 85% of the time. Of course his biggest chance of getting a victory in this match stems from him landing a knockout and if he isn’t able to do so early on he doesn’t seem to have a very good chance.