Video: Demetrious Johnson: I like to let my opponents choose their poison

“We want back to the first time and said these are the things you did very well and last night we were talking about it, and he goes the one thing you messed up on and would have kept this rematch from not happening again, is you didn’t knock him out. You took him to the point of exhaustion to where if you would have step back and had the skill set that you have now, back then this fight would not be happening because they would never have had a rematch if you would have knocked him out. So with that being said, mentally and physically I’m in a good place and pretty motivated to go out there and show the world what I’ve been working on. ”

“I like to let my opponents choose their poison, and see how they want to go about it. One of my coaches says, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You have to choose, and there have been fights to where I get in there and they are shutting down completely one of my games, where I cannot get my game going. Then another one of my games opens up, and I start taking advantage; then when I take them there, another opens up. I jump back and forth between different aspects of mixed martial arts and I think that’s what makes me so successful.”

Demetrious Johnson – UFC flyweight champion

UFC flyweight champion and No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter Demetrious Johnson collides with rival John Dodson in a highly anticipated rematch Saturday, September 5 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Johnson narrowly defeated Dodson in their first bout in 2013, with the champion surviving several knockdowns from the heavy-handed New Mexico native. Two years later, the rivalry has grown bitter, and the pair of flyweight standouts will look to settle the score once and for all at UFC® 191: JOHNSON vs. DODSON 2.

Since his first showdown with Dodson, Johnson (21-2-1, fighting out of Parkland, Wash.) has gone on to defend his belt five more times, scoring impressive finishes in four of those contests. He now looks for a seventh consecutive successful title defense which would put him in a tie for third place on the all-time list behind only Anderson Silva (10) and Georges St-Pierre (9).

Meanwhile, Dodson (18-6, fighting out of Albuquerque, N.M.) is riding a three-fight winning streak with two finishes and believes that the next knockdown he scores over the champion will be the last.