Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida Possible For UFC 104
Another interesting match-up is in the works to be added to the already stacked UFC 104 card for October. Welterweights Anthony Johnson and Yoshiyuki Yoshida will each look to move closer to the top of their division. The fighters have verbally agreed to the contest, but the actual fight contracts are in the process of being finalized, according to MMAJunkie.
Johnson is coming off of back to back knockout victories over Kevin Burns and Luigi Fioravanti, respectively, bouncing back from a controversial loss to Burns in their first meeting. He had been expected to take on “The Ultimate Fighter” alum Matt Brown at the finale for season 9 of “The Ultimate Fighter”, but was forced to withdraw by a knee injury suffered in training. Brown later backed out of the card citing nagging injuries of his own.
Yoshida garnered a submission victory over Brandon Wolff in his last outing at UFC 98, marking a rebound from a vicious knockout loss to Josh Koscheck in December. The skilled Judoka will bring an 11-3 record to the Octagon that evening which he will no doubt hope to extend.
Johnson recently made headlines for the wrong reasons as he was arrested for alleged domestic violence, allegations of which his managers maintain he is completely innocent.
For more information on the rumored card for UFC 104, please visit our UFC 104 Rumors page.
Tags: Anthony Johnson, Yoshiyuki Yoshida
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Yoshida’s BBJ will be his biggest weapon in this fight, and Rumble has been submitted before, but he has likely improved alot since then. His takedown defence should be good enough to keep an undersized Yoshida off of him. Im expecting a good Ko for Johnson here.
Seems like the UFC wants to keep building him up, by not realy throwing him to the wolves yet.
Assuming Rumble comes into the fight focused and seperated from his legal and personal troubles, he should score a win here, unless he gets dragged down onto the mat.
The last time I was in Hawaii, some of the younger judoka-turned-wannabe MMA fighters were tinkering with something “Japanese” they were calling “Throgo”, which was pidgeon for throw and go, which is a fusion of judo throws and submission attempts.
If a skilled judoka like Yoshida picks up on this Throgo fight style, he might make things interesting, but otherwise it’s all Rumble…
oo my gosh thats awesome i was just mentioned that match in the possible matchups thread on the forums
Yoshida has good subs and an overall decent ground game, his stand-up isn’t up to par with Rumble’s though. If Rumble were to work on his subs a bit more he’d be a tough guy to beat because he has a wrestling backround and good takedown defense,but he has been submitted before. If Rumble does win he shuld get a tougher fighter next. This should be a good fight, but it has the potential to not last, if it goes to the grouns i see Yoshida scoring a sub, obviously if it stays standing i’m expecting Rumble to “Chris Brown” Yoshida and get the win.