Just one day before UFC 213 gets underway on July 8th, in the same venue (T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada) Michael Johnson and Justin Gaethje will warm up the crowd and set the mood when the face off in a fight as part of the UFC 25 Finale.
Michael Johnson is a force to be reckoned with. He has a knack for knockouts and a staggering 44% of all his victories has come by the way of knockouts. His record currently stands at 18 – 11. Johnson’s recent form has dipped, however. In his most recent fight, he suffered a loss at the hands of Khabib Murmagomedov. His previous six fights have been splits and he is going to be hungry for a win, a convincing one at that. In fact, he will most certainly be looking to put the fight to bed before it can even get to the judges. His strike statistics do look promising with an averages strikes per minute of 3.77 and a strike accuracy of 35.3 %. When it comes to take down stats, his average is 0.58 takedowns with a 53.8 % accuracy which is not bad at all.
Gaethje, without a question of a doubt has a better record of 17 – 0. Furthermore, over 3/4th of his victories have been courtesy of knockouts, some of them pretty brutal. His most recent fight was a victory against Luiz Firmino. Gaethje’s is certainly going to be high on confidence stepping into the Octagon come July 7th.
This will no doubt be an entertaining fight which see’s two fighters with rather identical fighting styles try to outwit and out strike each other. It is admittedly difficult, however, to see Gaethje lose. He really has no weak points are vulnerabilities. He is a great grappler and can knock opponents out with hands or feet.
Prediction – Gaethje to win by knock out
Author : Rory McGregor
