This Saturday, former UFC flyweight title contender John Dodson will step into the Octagon in the main event of ‘UFC Fight Night: Portland’ to square off against John Lineker in a pivotal bantamweight showdown.
Dodson, who made the move to bantamweight after dropping his second loss to flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson, made quite the statement in his last fight when he put the bantamweight division on notice by knocking out Manvel Gamburyan in the first round of their UFC on FOX 19 scrap back in April.
While Dodson at 5’3 is considered on the smaller side for the bantamweight division, he proved that what he lacks in size, he makes up for in speed. As ‘The Magician’ pointed out in the ‘UFC Portland’ preview, he holds a considerable speed advantage over the rest of the 135ers given that the is moving up from flyweight.
Interestingly enough, while one would assume the cut to the bantamweight limit of 135 pounds would be easier for Dodson given that he used to fight at 125 pounds, he actually started his camp with quite the weight cut ahead of him.
#UFCPortland headliner John Dodson tells me he began his camp at 168 pounds. Must be 136 for Friday's weigh-in.
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohnMMA) September 28, 2016
What makes the above-mentioned fact even more stunning is that Dodson used to drop down to 125 to fight at flyweight. UFC flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson has stated in the past that the reason he isn’t interested in moving up to bantamweight is because he walks around just above the flyweight limit of 125.
Friday afternoon when Dodson steps on the scales to weigh in for his UFC Portland bout, he will have to weigh-in at, or below, the 136 limit mark.
It is important to mention that over the course of Dodson’s 12 year, 25 fight career, he has never missed weight once.