John Dodson is a slight favorite against Pedro Munhoz in a preliminary bout at UFC 222 on Saturday night. Dodson is 19-9 in his career, including 8-4 in the UFC, while Munhoz is 15-2, including 5-2 in the UFC. Dodson and Munhoz were expected to fight last month at UFC Fight Night 125 but Munhoz missed weight and the fight was rescheduled. This fight is one of four on the FS1 portion of the preliminary card, leading up to a five-fight pay-per-view card featuring Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya.
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John Dodson (19-9, 8-4 UFC)
Dodson has fought the best in the UFC and had mixed results. He was beaten twice by Demetrious Johnson for the flyweight championship but Dodson has some good wins against John Moraga, Manvel Gamburyan and Eddie Wineland. Dodson has nine knockout wins in his career and two wins by submission.
Dodson said to MMAJunkie that taking this fight against Munhoz was a no-brainer for him. “This is one of the dudes that I’m going to have to knock off the list anyway,” Dodson said. “If I consider myself to be the best fighter in the world, I have to fight everyone. I don’t care what rank they are, who they are, what name they have, all the hype behind them. I have to silence the crowd and prove my worth. That’s the only way I can become a champion.” Dodson said his goal is to get a title shot against 135-pound champion T.J. Dillashaw, who he knocked out in his UFC debut in December 2011.
Dodson has respect for the submission skills of Munhoz but said a surprise could be coming. “I’m going to go out there and tickle this man into submission,” Dodson said. “I know he’s jumping for a guillotine. He wants to cuddle me, and I know he wants to do something that hasn’t been done, and he wants to finish me. That’s his goal. My goal is to go ahead and do something that hasn’t been done either – get a tickle submission. Ultimately that man is going to get retired. If you get tapped out by tickles, how embarrassing? You can’t even live with that. How are you going to be the guy that gets tickled into submission?”
Pedro Munhoz (15-2, 5-2 UFC)
Munhoz has won his last four fights, defeating Russell Doane by submission, Justin Scoggins by submission, Damian Stasiak by unanimous decision and Rob Font by submission. There is no question Munhoz has excellent submission skills, as he has nine submission wins and just two wins by knockout.
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There is no question that Dodson has fought better competition, but he faces a dangerous fighter in Munhoz. The question is whether or not Munhoz can handle a top fighter like Dodson. No one has been able to finish Dodson in the past and I don’t think Munhoz can do it in this fight. I will take Dodson to get the win on Saturday night.
UFC 222 takes place on Saturday, March 3, 2018 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are five fights on the main pay-per-view card beginning at 10 p.m. Eastern featuring Cris Cyborg vs. Yana Kunitskaya. There are seven preliminary bouts, with four on FS1, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern and three on UFC Fight Pass, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Main Card (Pay-Per-View)
Women’s Featherweight – Cris Cyborg -1720 vs. Yana Kunitskaya
Featherweight – Frankie Edgar -181 vs. Brian Ortega
Bantamweight – Andre Soukhamthath -135 vs. Sean O’Malley
Heavyweight – Stefan Struve -220 vs. Andrei Arlovski
Woman’s Bantamweight – Ketlen Vieria -136 vs. Cat Zingano
Preliminary Card (FS1)
Women’s Strawweight – Mackenzie Dern -328 vs. Ashley Yoder
Lightweight – Beneil Dariush -377 vs. Alexander Hernandez
Bantamweight – John Dodson -163 vs. Pedro Munhoz
Middleweight – Hector Lombard -160 vs. C.B. Dollaway
Preliminary Card (UFC Fight Pass)
Welterweight – Zak Ottow -236 vs. Mike Pyle
Bantamweight – Cody Stamann -159 vs. Bryan Caraway
Light Heavyweight – Jordan Johnson -283 vs. Adam Millstead
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