We are long past the point of expecting Johnson to coalesce his
considerable talent into a championship-level fighter, but his May
win over Alan
Patrick should at least buy him some more time to provide some
entertaining moments in the UFC. A veteran of “The Ultimate
Fighter” back in 2010, Johnson was a solid middle-of-the-road
competitor for a few years until a breakout win over Joe Lauzon in
2013, which started “The Menace” on a path to the fringes of title
contention. By 2015, Johnson was firmly in the mix for some big
fights, though things often did not go his way. A 95-second
knockout of Dustin
Poirier stands out as the highlight of his career, but fighters
like Nate
Diaz and Justin
Gaethje were able to lure Johnson into losing brawls, and some
early success against Khabib
Nurmagomedov also turned into a crushing loss. On the back end
of his career, Johnson’s complete distaste for grappling has undone
him often. He is still as sharp a striking threat as ever and a
solid wrestler, but Johnson has also consistently folded once
opponents can find some modicum of wrestling success, no matter how
good he has looked up to that point. Johnson was firmly on the cut
line with four straight losses heading into the Patrick fight, but
after finally scoring one of his blistering knockout wins, he is
riding his first momentum in a while heading into this bout with
Mullarkey. Australia’s Mullarkey looked like the type of hard-nosed
but unathletic prospect that would struggle to find headway in the
UFC, but it has worked to a solid degree. Being both large and
durable for the division, he has been able to march through some
danger and score wins over Khama
Worthy and Devonte
Smith. Even Mullarkey’s losses have aged well. His debut
against Brad
Riddell was an all-out war, and his second-round knockout at
the hands of Jalin
Turner in March looks better after Turner’s absolute domination
of Riddell on July 2. Even though Mullarkey can eat a shot, his
ability to get hit does make for a worrying issue against someone
with as much power as Johnson. However, in general, the Aussie
looks very much like the type of persistent grinder who can survive
some early trouble and start getting some takedowns, at which point
he should roll to a clear victory. The pick is Mullarkey via
second-round stoppage.
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