Henry Cejudo and Demetrious Johnson are two of the greatest flyweights to ever grace the UFC octagon. Even combined, they only lost 4 times in the UFC and 2 of their losses came against each other. However, something that has constantly divided fans is the winner of their second bout.
Many opined that Triple C won their second encounter whereas others believe “Mighty Mouse” did enough to win. But who really won their closely contested bout back in 2018? Well, 2 of the 3 judges at UFC 227 scored the fight 47-48 for Henry Cejudo with Marc Rosales being the only one to score it 48-47 for Demetrious Johnson. Did the other 2 judges make the right call in awarding Cejudo the win? Maybe the stats make the picture clearer.
Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo 2 UFC 227 scorecard https://t.co/nYDm78lyZn pic.twitter.com/0LJjpZXXqa
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) August 5, 2018
At UFC 227, Demetrious Johnson won the battle on the feet with 121 strikes to Cejudo’s 80. They attempted a similar number of strikes (174 – 178) with Henry actually attempting more strikes than DJ. And out of DJ’s 121 strikes, 81 counted as significant strikes. To Cejudo’s credit, however, he managed to land 29 head strikes to Johnson’s 23. Nevertheless, wrestling is the area of MMA where the former Olympic gold medalist, Cejudo, shines.
On August 4, 2018, Triple C landed 3 out of his 11 attempted takedowns. Mighty Mouse was actually more accurate with his takedowns landing 1 of his 2 attempts. But, Cejudo had vastly more control time than Demetrious with 4 minutes 38 seconds to DJ’s 36 seconds. Another factor is that Henry landed 17 clinch strikes to Demetrious’s 7. These lopsided stats in different aspects of MMA perfectly exemplify how close this fight was.
Did Henry Cejudo really win against Demetrious Johnson at UFC 227?
The stats paint a very clear picture of the fight between Triple C and Mighty Mouse. DJ overwhelmed Henry in the striking exchanges. But Cejudo won the grappling and wrestling encounters at UFC 227 with much more control time and clinch strikes. However, as the famous saying goes, statistics really don’t paint the full picture.
Cejudo gets the champ down for a moment, but DJ rolls out of it and gets back to his feet! #UFC227 pic.twitter.com/oGaQc6FMjz
— UFC (@ufc) August 5, 2018
Henry Cejudo may have had more control time during the fight against Demetrious Johnson. Regardless, the official rules stipulate that control time needs to have counted for something in order to affect the scoring, i.e., effective control time. And Cejudo simply didn’t do enough after taking down Mighty Mouse. In his 4:38, Henry Cejudo landed only 3 ground strikes on Johnson.
To beat the UFC flyweight champion at the time, Demetrious Johnson, Henry needed to have done more with his takedowns. Especially considering how Mighty Mouse outclassed Triple C on the feet. However, this will end up as one of those controversial MMA decisions in recent memory. Much like Sean O’Malley’s win over Petr Yan or GSP vs Johny Hendricks.