Lauzon Explains What Went Wrong Against Michael Johnson

Fan favorite lightweight, Joe Lauzon, put up a disappointing performance last weekend during the UFC on FS 1 main card opening bout against, Blackzilian, Michael Johnson.

During the post-fight media event, UFC President Dana White said it was the most lopsided fight in the promotions history and for a Lauzon fight that’s almost incomprehensible.

Check out Joe’s very candid and honest interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports:

“Dana said it was one of the most lopsided beatings ever,” said Lauzon. “I would have to agree. It was pretty bad. That was me at my worst, but I think you have to give credit to Michael and I was so bad because he was at his best. I watched the fight three or four times and he just did a really, really good job.”

So what happened?

“Michael Johnson happened,” Lauzon explained.

“The plan going into the fight was to try to take away his jab. If you try to take away his jab, you have to make him miss by a very narrow margin. Part of that is, you’re going to get hit a little bit. We didn’t do a very good job at that and that’s where the whole plan started.

“Michael Johnson is very tough to take down. He’s constantly moving around, he has great footwork and he moves great laterally, from side to side. He does a great job of not coming crazy forward, except when you’re in a purely defensive state. I couldn’t get going and he tagged me with some really good shots, and that was it.”

“It was 100 percent not my night. But I stand by everything I said: I had great sparring partners and I had a great training camp. I was feeling strong. I was feeling fast. I was feeling super confident and I wasn’t looking past him, because I knew how super tough he would be. Just looking at myself, I felt I was in great shape and ready to go and he right off the bat took me out of my game. I never really got started and usually, I like to come out and be really aggressive.

“For this fight, it was the opposite a little bit. We wanted him to come forward and we wanted him to throw a little bit so we could close the distance on him. Some people think I wanted to have a boxing match or a kickboxing match or that it was me trying to show off my new improved stand-up.”

“That couldn’t be the furthest thing from the truth. I was trying to get the fight to the ground. There were a couple of times I got in and got a body lock, and he did a great job of shaking away and getting away. I was trying to set things up, but he did a great job and I could never get things going.”

“He had a slight speed advantage on me when we started out at the beginning. If I couldn’t catch him when I was at my best, and fresh, it got even worse when he was inflicting damage on me. He fought really smart. He beat me up a lot in the first and basically took the second and rested and kind of coasted a little bit. Then, he beat me up really good in the third. Give Michael credit – he fought a really, really smart fight.”