In mixed martial arts, momentum is a single punch, a whisper in the ear, a day off to rejuvenate the mind and body. In a game of millimeters and nanoseconds, one tiny thing can make the difference between winning and losing.
Walking into the Octagon in Hidalgo, Texas, Saturday night, Michael Johnson needed a shift of momentum. Looking in from the outside, plenty seemed to be going against him. He had lost two straight contests. He had undergone surgery on his labrum and rotator cuff, injuries any athletic orthopedist will tell you are among the most difficult to repair. And his opponent, Dustin Poirier, had won four in a row.
By his own admission, his back was against the wall.
But by the time he left, he was barking for big fights and the kind of money Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz are making.
It was a transformation as shocking as the result.
“I say over and over, ‘I have the fastest hands in [the lightweight] division, and I’m the most dangerous guy in the division,” he said in his post-fight interview. “Give me my next victim. Anybody. I’m coming for that title.”
First things first, Johnson had to walk the tightrope Saturday to shine in the kind of scenario that usually leads to either panicked desperation or composed execution. For Johnson, it was the latter and a victory that was undoubtedly the most significant of his UFC career.
McGregor and Diaz money? That might be a tad optimistic, but you can’t blame a guy for putting it out into the universe with a hope and a prayer.
Stranger things have happened. Not to put it on that level, but the result, a 95-second knockout, seemed unthinkable just a few moments before his cash demands. Poirier, after all, was the favorite to win, according to Odds Shark. But there it was, Johnson bringing Poirier’s own words—"a crispy two-piece"—back to haunt him.
It was a right hook-straight left combo that ended Poirier’s night, both punches landing square and sending him crashing him to the mat for some crushing and cringeworthy ground strikes for the finish. Take a look at this thing. It is the epitome of MMA: brutal yet magnificent.
“Speed kills, and when I keep that movement I’m unstoppable in this cage,” Johnson said on the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show.
His talent has never been in question. He has blazing fast hands, power and comes with a wrestling pedigree.
His physical skills are impressive—tantalizing, even.
They are also a source of frustration because the results often don’t match up with the talent. Even though he walked into the cage ranked No. 10 in the world, his results at the highest level have been largely mixed, with an 8-6 career UFC record prior to Saturday night and the propensity to dig himself into trouble.
He’s also been the victim of some bad luck.
In August 2015, he’d won four in a row and was surging toward the top of the division when he met Beneil Dariush. By almost all accounts, he won the fight. Every reporter's score collected by MMA Decisions was in his favor, and nearly 90 percent of fans felt the same. Yet the judges scored it for Dariush.
Still, the UFC set him up with a high-profile fight with Nate Diaz that December, but Johnson struggled to live up to the moment, losing focus and falling in a decision.
This has been a pattern for Johnson, winning when he shouldn’t and losing when he’s favored. According to noted MMA gambler Luca Fury, Johnson has gone just 2-6 as a favorite, while thriving as an underdog:
He's 5-1 as a dog in the UFC and 2-6 as a favorite. That's bizarre but him taking guys lightly is the cause https://t.co/swCIKTdUL7
— Fury's Fight Picks (@FurysFightPicks) September 18, 2016
As often happens in MMA, a loss led to introspection and changes. The biggest one, he suggested, was physical. After being bothered by shoulder pain for a while, Johnson visited a specialist, finding out he had a hole in his labrum, among other problems.
A hole in the labrum. That's significant.
“I’m not using it as an excuse in any previous fights, but there was something going on, you could see it in my fights,” he said during a fight-week media interview.
Maybe more so than that, on Saturday, we could see what he is like when healthy. Hopefully for his sake, this is the time when everything jells. In a division that ages quicker than most, he’s 30 years old. He can’t afford many more setbacks.
At least this time around, it looked like his performance level was in reach of his talent.
In a sport so complex, it’s often a simple thing that makes the difference. Whether he's a tick faster after surgery, his confidence is back or he simply embraced the pressure of the moment, Johnson has a clean slate. He’s suddenly a contender again. He once again matters. Momentum is funny like that.
