Demetrious Johnson strolled to victory against Chris Cariaso tonight at UFC 178, producing a finish in the second round courtesy of a kimura submission.
Round One:
Johnson with a leg kick to start. An inside leg kick lands as he circles his opponent. Another one as he chips away at the lead leg.
Cariaso with a few punches, but Johnson is moving away from it. Cariaso tries to land a kick of his own and it just glances the champion.
Johnson again backs out of reach of Cariaso’s strikes. Suddenly ‘Mighty Mouse’ comes charging forward and lands a takedown easily. He’s looking to pass and very nicely switches sides and gets to side control. However, Cariaso does well to move him back to half guard almost immediately.
Cariaso gets up to one knee against the cage and then stands with Johnson still clinching him. He lands a knee. They trade a knee apiece and then Johnson lands hard with a knee. Another couple land and Cariaso tries to drop for a takedown. Johnson easily stops that and keeps on top.
They stand shortly afterwards though and Johnson lands a nice knee to the body in the clinch again. They break apart and Cariaso lands a leg kick.
Final 10 seconds and Johnson lands a big overhand right that hurts Cariaso and then a big knee to follow up that’s got the challenger in trouble, but he’s saved by the bell.
Round Two:
Cariaso grazes with a body kick. He pops off a few kicks as he looks to get into this fight. Johnson steps in with a hard kick of his own.
Cariaso slips on a kick and Johnson gets on top in his full guard. He moves to half guard, then to side control and traps an arm so he can blast down some uninterrupted blows to the head. Johnson staying active shifting position as he looks for an angle to attack his opponent.
He moves to side control on the other side now and goes for a kimura submission. Cariaso in real trouble here and it looks like he taps momentarily just as Johnson is shifting position. He might as well have as he’s not getting out of this and just a few seconds with the champ still cranking hard on his arm he does tap out with 2.29mins of the second round gone.
So, as expected this was a relatively easy night’s work for Johnson, but nonetheless he did everything right and getting his third stoppage victory in his last four fights will be pleasing for him.
