Big underdog Chris Cariaso on Demetrious Johnson: 'He's going to get dominated'
If Demetrious Johnson wasn't 5-foot-3, he might as well be Goliath.
The UFC flyweight champion is almost a 14-to-1 favorite over Chris Cariaso ahead of their UFC 178 main event Saturday in Las Vegas. Johnson has won six in a row at 125 pounds and looks essentially untouchable.
Cariaso, on the other hand, is an unlikely challenger. He's only ranked No. 8 among flyweight contenders and he was on no one's radar for a title shot before the UFC announced this bout.
Basically, no one is giving Cariaso a shot to win this fight -- from the fans to the media to the oddsmakers. So why is he so confident he'll beat Johnson?
"He's going to get dominated," Cariaso told FOX Sports.
No amount of words or bluster is going to careen the probabilities in his favor. Johnson, after all, is the best flyweight to even grace the Octagon, though the division is less than three years old. "Mighty Mouse" is everything you'd want from a fighter -- he's athletically gifted, technical, cerebral, well-coached and well-prepared. Johnson is a fluid striker, changes levels better than anyone in MMA and has a relentless wrestling game.
The superlatives are endless. Johnson is one of the best fighters on the planet. he's ranked No. 4 on the UFC's pound-for-pound list.
Cariaso, though, truly knows he's going to shock the world.
"Everybody has always been beatable," he said. "Looking at 'Mighty Mouse,' yeah he's been dominant in his last couple of fights, but I definitely see holes in his game and I definitely think he's beatable."
Perhaps. But is Cariaso (17-5) the guy to pull it off? With all due respect to "Kamikaze," history doesn't paint give that indication. Cariaso is a very respectable 4-2 as a flyweight in the UFC with three straight wins coming in. But he also has losses to John Moraga and Jussier Formiga, who are both ahead of him in the rankings. Moraga, who Johnson dominated in a title fight, finished Cariaso via guillotine.
Chris Cariaso beat Louis Smolka back in May in his last fight by split decision.
Cariaso, 33, does not have a victory over a ranked flyweight. His best career victory probably came at 135 pounds over Takeya Mizugaki in 2012.
Those facts are not foreign to Cariaso, but the opinion that he's going to get demolished is lost on him. So are the critics saying he shouldn't even be fighting for the belt.
"I try not to focus on that kind of stuff or read what the blogs are saying," Cariaso said.
The one thing Cariaso does have going for him is experience, though he and Johnson started in WEC around the same time in 2010. Cariaso fully expects to win and doesn't buy into the fact that he doesn't deserve to be in there against Johnson.
"I definitely put in the work and that's what I believe," Cariaso said. "It's not like I'm on my second fight in the UFC. … I've been here and I've paid my dues. I definitely feel like it's my time."
Cariaso had been preparing for a contender fight with Kyoji Horiguchi, which would have taken place this past Saturday at UFC Fight Night: Hunt vs. Nelson in Japan. But the UFC called him and offered him Johnson at UFC 177 on Aug. 31 and, of course, he took it.
The bout ended up being moved to the main event of UFC 178 when a light heavyweight title matchup between champion Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier was nixed due to an injury to Jones. That gave Cariaso more time to prepare and, if nothing else, he's coming into the challenge with the perfect outlook.
"I'm feeling real confident for this fight," Cariaso said. "The stars have aligned for this fight. Everything has been going well."
Cariaso won't be heading into the Octagon on Saturday trying to prove everyone wrong. He'll be trying to prove himself right. It'll be an uphill battle.
"When I'm the champ, I'm going to continue being myself and continue being an ambassador the sport, for the division," he said.
