5 Brutal UFC squash matches

#4 Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida – UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun – 10/24/09

Johnson appeared to be about 200 lbs in the Octagon during this encounter!

On paper, this wasn’t a squash if you looked at both fighters’ records. During his UFC tenure, Yoshida hadn’t quite lived up to his pre-UFC record – he’d beaten former Shooto champion Akira Kikuchi and future UFC title challenger Dan Hardy in the Cage Force promotion – but his only loss at this stage was to Josh Koscheck.

The problem for Yoshida, however, was all about the weight. The Japanese fighter was never the biggest 170lber himself but he wasn’t tiny or soft; just your standard sized Welterweight really, probably cutting from around 180lbs or so.

Johnson meanwhile came in at 176lbs – five pounds over the Welterweight limit – but he was clearly cutting a monstrous amount of weight to even get to that. By the time the two men stepped into the Octagon, Yoshida looked to be around 180lbs. Johnson appeared to be around 200lbs, probably two weight classes above his Japanese foe.

Yoshida looked physically outmatched and while physicality isn’t always key in MMA when you’re up against a heavy hitter like Anthony Rumble Johnson, being outsized doesn’t help. Sure enough, Rumble tagged Yoshida in the very first exchange, wobbling the Japanese veteran, and from there he swiftly followed with an absolutely brutal right hand that sent Yoshida down and out.

Referee Steve Mazzagatti – in one of his best-ever performances for my money – stepped in before Johnson could follow up, as Yoshida while not unconscious clearly couldn’t continue.

There’s a reason that people say when all skills are equal, a good big man will beat a good little man. There’s also a reason that modern MMA uses strict weight classes for the most part and punishes fighters – like Johnson here – who miss weight with fines. Watch this fight and you’ll see those reasons firmly in action. This was a cruelly violent finish.