John “The Magician” Dodson won The Ultimate Fighter Season 14 bantamweight crown after removing T.J. Dillashaw from his senses.
Dodson showed what many fans believed were his strengths which was his stand up and speed. He used both to end any hopes of Dillashaw grinding out a win on the mat.
For the first minute of the frame, Dodson seemed content to dance around the Octagon, waiting for Dillashaw to attack.
When Dillashaw finally pressed forward, Dodson countered him with some hard punches and pounced on the woozy fighter in quick fashion to win the bantamweight crown.
Besides the KO in the finale, Dodson also won by TKO to get into the house and finished teammate, Johnny Bedford to reach the finals.
After winning TUF, it’s clear that Dodson is going to have a speed and punching power advantage over just about anyone he’s likely to face next.
Of course what’s not clear is what’s next for Dodson and how does he fit into the UFC bantamweight rankings.
Although Dodson has shown some potential, the UFC should bring him along slowly just as they would with any other prospect.
If the UFC stuck with their theme of matching winners with winners, a match up against Darren Uyenoyama would provide an interesting bout given Uyenoyama’s grappling skills.
It would represent the kind of fight Tony Ferguson, another TUF winner, just had against an experienced veteran in Yves Edwards.
Another possibility is Alex Soto. He may be coming off a loss but he has a military background that the UFC would like to build on (ala Brian Stann) and defeating a TUF winner would help his cause.
As far as rankings go, Dodson is either going to be very lucky or very unfortunate.
He’ll be lucky because the bantamweight division is relatively new to the UFC and there aren’t a lot of credible title challengers at the moment.
Or he will be very unfortunate because for that exact reason, he will be pushed to the top when he isn’t ready.
Dodson is in control of his own destiny after winning TUF. He has the skills and the personality to be a star, but can he survive against top-level competition?
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