...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
John Dodson is returning to the cage this month at UFC 187, fighting for the first time since his win over John Moraga last June.
The Ultimate Fighter season 14 winner holds a win over current Bantamweight Champion T.J. Dillashaw, and gave the toughest fight to Flyweight Champ Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson. He expects to get right back into the mix after fighting his friend Zach Makovsky, and feels fully confident that he's going to eventually be a Champion in the UFC.
"I notice when you guys bring me up to Demetrious Johnson or to T.J. Dillashaw, both of them get super butthurt about the fact that you guys ask them about fighting me," Dodson said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "Demetrious had his toughest fight against me and he knows that he'll have one again, another tough fight with me. I potentially could steal that title from him. And T.J. Dillashaw goes around telling everyone that when I fought him, it was a fluke, and that it never would happen again.
"I just keep on looking ahead, man. I'm going to be champion. I wouldn't want to sit there saying, 'what if I wasn't champion?' I just know that I'm going to be the champion, and that's a fact I'm going to stay with. I'm going to go out there and bang it out with them dudes, and when I walk away with the championship, I'm going to let them know that we both knew this was going to happen."
With "Mighty Mouse" not gaining the full appreciation of fans despite his technical brilliance, Dodson also believes he can be the man to bring more attention to the division.
"We always thought it was going to be Ian McCall, but Ian McCall hasn't been able to perform the way that he wants to. So I guess I can step up and say that I am the savior of the flyweight division," Dodson said.
"If everybody wants to have a last hope for [the division], it'd be me."
Penick's Analysis: Dodson's extremely talented, almost always entertaining, and he'll be a major test for anyone booked against him in this division. He's still the most dangerous competitor in the division as far as Johnson's challengers are concerned, and if he's able to improve his gas tank, he could very well still take that title. That becomes a tougher task with Johnson improving greatly as well, but Dodson gave him some real problems in their 2013 title bout. It's going to be great to have him back in the mix, and if he can beat Makovsky, he should be next in line.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
