John Dodson has proven to be one of the best fighters to come out of The Ultimate Fighter in several seasons, something that was very clear when he battled Demetrious Johnson in a very competitive flyweight title fight. Dodson would lose that fight on the scorecards, but earned an increased amount of respect from the MMA fanbase for his gritty performance that saw him drop the champion with punches several times.
Dodson spoke to MMA Fighting and feels that he did enough to earn the decision:
“I thought I won three [rounds], man,” he admitted. “In my mind, I thought I had the first three rounds, and then when I watched it, I still thought I had the first three rounds. Because it was the third round where he took me down. I slipped and I fell, and he sat on top of me, and then I stood right back up. I was like, come on, come at me again. I actually dropped him in that third round, and you guys don’t count that. You guys count him coming and landing on top on me as more impressive than me dropping him.”
None of the official judges gave that third round to Johnson. And none of the tracked media scores for the fight at MMA Decisions scored the fight for Dodson.
Sill, Dodson is looking forward to an eventual rematch:
“If it were up to me, it’d be right now,” Dodson finished with a grin. “Shoot, I was ready to go last week. Or the week after the fight, I was ready to go.
“I wanted to go right away, but since [Johnson] already has a fight, I don’t care who I have to fight to lead up to that. I’m going to go back there, I’m going to win every one of my next fights including my next title fight. I will get that rematch, and I will win.”