Anthony Johnson(left) will face Charlie Brenneman at UFC on Versus 6

The UFC on Versus 6 event that will take place at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C., will feature a important welterweight bout between Charlie Brenneman and Anthony Johnson. Both fighters are coming off wins with Brenneman upsetting Rick Story in his last bout and Johnson dominating former title challenger Dan Hardy back in March. Let’s see how this one breaks down.

Charlie Brenneman comes into this fight with a career record of (14-2) with 5 wins via TKO/KO and 2 wins via submission. As mentioned, Brenneman upset Rick Story his last time out in a bout that he literally took on a few hours notice replacing Nate Marquardt who was pulled from the bout. Brenneman has a wrestling background and that’s his best asset in the cage, but he is versed in submissions as well. Brenneman has had problems with fighters with wrestling backgrounds with heavy hands in his two losses.

Anthony Johnson comes into this fight with a career record of (9-3) with 6 wins via KO/TKO. As mentioned, Johnson was last seen dominating former title challenger Dan Hardy back in March. It was the first fight in over a year for Johnson and I’m sure he just wanted to get the win since he was coming off a loss to Josh Koscheck in his last matchup. Johnson is a huge welterweight with devastating knockout power and a solid wrestling background to go with it. Johnson has had issues making weight a couple of times, so that may be something to keep an eye on.

Bet on Fighting has Johnson as the betting favorite at (-200) and Brenneman is the underdog at (+160).

I think those odds are spot on. Brenneman has issues with larger fighters that have wrestling backgrounds and he will be facing a beast in Johnson(provided he makes weight and he should). Brenneman’s only realistic chance in this fight is taking Johnson down or putting him against the cage hoping to tire him out by making him work to defend the takedown. The only problem with that is he has to close the distance and that puts him in range to get blasted by Johnson. Johnson does like to kick quite a bit for a wrestler, so it’s possible that Brenneman could catch one and try to take him down that way as well.

This is an important fight for both fighters. A win for Johnson would be two in a row and if he wins in emphatic fashion the cries for him to face a top 5 fighter will start to get louder and louder. A win for Brenneman would be two big upsets in a row and he would be getting the calls to fight a top guy as well. Ultimately, I think the size and power of Johnson will be too much for Brenneman. We saw Josh Koscheck have to dig deep to put Johnson on his back and I don’t think Brenneman as that type of explosion.

Johnson takes this via TKO.

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