Contributor: Ben Kohn
In a battle of two exciting Lightweights, the king of the fight night bonuses Joe Lauzon takes on the one time heavily hyped prospect Michael Johnson. This fight is going to be the grappler vs. the sprawl-n-brawler and oh man I cannot wait. No matter who he fights, Lauzon is always in an exciting fight win or lose. Johnson is an athletic classic sprawl-brawl stylist harkening back to the older UFC’s where they were the kryptonite to BJJ-based fighters. Can Joe take down Johnson and work his ultra-high pace BJJ or will Johnson keep it on the feet and knock him out? Find out this Saturday night because it’s fucking free UFC bitches!
Michael Johnson was touted as the one to win TUF 12 but lost a Unanimous Decision to Jonathan Brookins in the finale. Since then, he has gone 4-3 and had a 3 fight win streak snapped by Miles Jury. After losing his last fight by D’arce choke to Reza Medadi in his last fight, Johnson is in serious need of a win here. His 3 fight win streak had people thinking he was “for real” as Joe Rogan would say. Jury totally dispelled any hopes of him making a title run in the near future but Johnson does have some natural skills that make him a dangerous opponent for any Lightweight. He loves to use his wrestling in the reverse to keep the fight standing and use his boxing to batter his opponents. He doesn’t really use kicks very much in order to avoid being taken down off the kicks. He isn’t really flashy with his striking, using straight and crisp straight punches and hooks. Against grapplers who can take him down, he will circle around and strike from the fringe, only using combinations when he feels safe to do so. One issue I notice with him specifically is his complete lack of head movement when entering into striking range. He 
will keep his head bolt upright, especially when he throws punches to the body as he will often attempt with long straights. Overall, Johnson relies on his natural athleticism a lot to supplement his style and it has worked out for him. If he can keep this standing, he can definitely win.
Once taken down though, Johnson really is like a fish out of water off of his back. He enters completely into survival mode, holding onto anything he can to avoid getting pounded on or submitted and it really is not going to cut it against a guy who is so dangerous on the ground like Lauzon. The worst part his; he isn’t even that good at scrambling to get off his back. Johnson literally just shells up and tries to hold on, maybe hoping for a referee standup. This won’t happen against Lauzon who non-stop attacks his opponents on the ground and on the feet. Johnson better hope he has improved his ground game because if he shows up like he did against Jury, he will not be in the cage that long.
Joe Lauzon seriously should have a UFC belt made just for him, call it the Hardcore belt and strap that shit around his waist because he is the toughest SOB at Lightweight. The absolute shit-kicking he took from Jim Miller in the first two rounds was terrifying and to come back and nearly submit him in the third was just unbelievable and his balls are made of adamantium or something. Seriously, he can knock you out with his sack if he wore the same trunks Dennis Hallman did. Anyway moving along, Lauzon is not one of those guys who has “improved his striking with every fight”. Yes he has gotten better in general with timing and technique but his overall striking game has stayed the same which is left hooks, right uppercuts and straights, very little head movement and covering up with his hands in front of him to block. He will occasionally knee you in the gut and throw kicks but his bread and butter is definitely his ground game and everyone knows it. The problem is, he is willing to brawl with guys because he is such a tough guy and loves putting on exciting fights as it is how he makes his living, earning of-the-night bonuses. He is just not a very good striker but he is serviceable enough to close the distance and drag you to the ground. Another weapon of his is his relentless forward movement. He constantly pressures you, always making you work and never giving you a second to breathe which will wear you down, even a guy like Jim Miller who is known for having amazing cardio and was beating on Joe for two rounds and was exhausted by the third as he was forced to work the entire time at a crazy pace. Joe will also attempt crazy things to get it to the ground, such as a flying heel hook against Jim Miller.
Once he gets it down, he is an animal. He will dive for submissions from any and all positions, constantly forcing you to adjust and move. He seems rather fond of cranking limbs but his chokes are also nasty as well. His long limbs and thinner frame allow him to lock in submissions from extremely odd angles and that really works to his advantage. On the ground, Johnson’s defensive shell style will not work. Jury completely worked him on the ground and while Jury is also a brown belt, he was content to ground and pound most of the time. Lauzon will aggressively hunt for the submission from both the top and on bottom and Johnson is not good enough at grappling to defend it. He has been subbed by much less competent grapplers and will get subbed if the fight hits the ground.
Their styles match up better than most would think. While Johnson’s takedown defense is relatively good, Lauzon loves to brawl and may oblige Johnson and allow him to have a standup fight which is his only route to victory. Should that happen, Johnson will need to keep his distance and work the outside to avoid clinching or takedown range. His raw athleticism will definitely need to be at its peak in order to stop shot attempts and he needs to avoid the clinch at all costs. Johnson has the edge in striking, and Lauzon should not even allow him to try and get comfortable there.
Lauzon’s grappling is beautiful to watch and he needs to close the distance and get it to the ground as soon as he can. Should he get it there, he will win by submission; it’s only a matter of time. Edge on the ground goes to Lauzon.
Bottom line is that Johnson has not lived up to his potential while Lauzon has carved a nitch as a fringe top ten contender who is exciting, tough, and a beast on the ground. Joe Lauzon will get another win here by submission 2nd round.
-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten.
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