Demetrious Johnson shares his prediction for a future Israel Adesanya vs. Bo Nickal title fight

Demetrious Johnson is sharing his prediction for a future Israel Adesanya vs. Bo Nickal title fight.

It was on the first episode of ‘The GOATCast’ with Henry Cejudo and Demetrious Johnson, that the latter spoke about the state of the UFC middleweight division.

Initially talking about Israel Adesanya (24-2 MMA) vs Sean Strickland (27-5 MMA) which takes place on Saturday, September 9th at UFC 293 in the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, the two spoke about who’s the real threat for ‘The Last Stylebender’.

Demetrious Johnson shared that he doesn’t see Strickland or Dricus Du Plessis as a real threat to the champ.

“In order for him to have to worry about his grappling being in jeopardy, he needs to fight a person who’s going to be more athletic, more well-rounded and being able to take him to those deep waters and build, get him down, pass his guard and threaten him with the submission game which I don’t see anybody right now in the middleweight division doing that.”

Cejudo decided to put Bo Nickal’s (5-0 MMA) name into the conversation, to which Demetrious Johnson said (h/t MMANews):

“The biggest thing with Bo Nickal is you have a wrestler who hasn’t really developed very good kickboxing. What I mean by good kickboxing is his rhythm on his feet. Israel Adesanya, all he has to do is have good takedown defense, mix up the kickboxing, keep Bo Nickal guessing. Eventually Bo Nickal will take Israel down if they fight, if Israel can make sure that he doesn’t pass his guard, be very active off his back, they will get standed back up, they get stand back up, he has to keep Bo Nickal guessing. If he can keep Bo Nickal guessing, he will end up knocking Bo Nickal out. You’re calling it here, on the GOAT talk right here, Mighty’s calling it” 

Do you agree with Demetrious Johnson’s take on the middleweight division and what may happen should a Nickal vs Adesanya match-up make it to the cage?

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