Leland Rolling of BloodyElbow has a very solid preview of this interesting fight. It’s an interesting match of styles and features a rising star against an underrated fighter. Rolling expands:
Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida Preview
↵↵The welterweight division hasn’t had a plethora of intriguing stylistic match-ups recently, but I think this fight falls into that category. Johnson is primarily known for his kickboxing and powerful striking coupled with his wrestling ability. He’s been training with Strikeforce’s Cung Le, who’s fairly well known for his Sanshou-style of fighting, so it’s easy to see that Johnson is putting some heavy emphasis on his striking game. It appears to have worked against Kevin Burns, and he was able to easily demolish a normally tough-to-finish fighter in Luigi Fioravanti.
↵Yoshida’s striking is his weakness as he’s a Judo player who uses solid top control techniques and intelligent cage tactics to punish opponents on the ground. He has a good working knowledge of choke techniques, but elbows and fists are his normal means of finishing fights. As evident in the Koscheck fight, Yoshida’s stand-up techniques can be limited against power punchers like Johnson, and Johnson’s reach and kicks present even more problems.
↵
See More:
