“He’s been fighting prospects and I’ve been fighting contenders,” he said confidently. “I fought guys that have been prospects, been ranked, and been the No. 1 now, twice — Brandon Royval in the LFA, and Joshua Van in the UFC. Both of those were close fights; one I got the KO, one of them I didn’t get the nod, but it was close.”
The fight with Van is one that sticks out for obvious reasons, as the 23-year-old from Houston, by way of Myanmar, has posted five straight wins since their encounter in Denver last July, most recently besting Royval on short notice to situate himself as the No. 1 contender in the flyweight division.
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It was a competitive fight through the first two rounds, with the judges split right down the middle — 20-18 Johnson, 19-19, and 20-18 Van — heading into the third round. Twenty seconds later, Johnson took the judges out of the equation.
While the loss clearly sparked something in Van, the question is, has his subsequent rise prompted Johnson to look inward, to grasp the power that comes from having earned a stoppage win over the emerging standout just 13 months ago?