UFC on FOX 4: Mike Swick returns from two year hiatus to face DaMarques Johnson

The UFC on FOX 4 event will feature a welterweight bout between two former TUF contestants when Mike Swick returns from a two year hiatus to take on DaMarques Johnson on Saturday night in Los Angeles, California. Swick first appeared on the scene as a part of the inaugural cast of The Ultimate Fighter with Johnson appearing on TUF 9 where he was a finalist. This has the potential to be a solid fight so let’s break it down and see how it’ll pan out.

DaMarques Johnson (16-10) is coming into this fight off the submission loss to John Maguire at the UFC on FUEL TV 2 event in April. Johnson has gone (2-2) in his last four fight dating back to 2011 alternating wins and losses. He has won seven fights via TKO/KO and seven bouts via submission. Johnson has captured both “Fight of the Night” and “Submission of the Night” honors while fighting in the UFC. He likes to go for the finish and is ‘good’ everywhere, but isn’t great at anything. However, he has been stopped nine times in his career so let’s just say he doesn’t like for fights to get to the judges.

Mike Swick (14-4) is coming off the two year hiatus after dealing with injuries and a mis-diagnosed stomach ailment. He was last seen in action getting choked out by Paulo Thiago back at UFC 109 in February 2010. He had lost a unanimous decision to Dan Hardy at UFC 105 prior to the time off as well. Swick has seven wins via TKO/KO and three wins via submission. He usually prefers to strike with his opponents, but he is versed in submissions as well. He’s like Johnson in that most of his fights have not gone to the judges.

This is an interesting fight mainly due to Swick being out of the game for so long. It’s difficult to forecast what a guy will bring to the table when being out of action for two years. He wasn’t fighting great at the time of his departure, but maybe the time away helped him get some things sured up. However, the MMA game changes so fast nowadays so the other question will be has his game evolved with the times?

Swick will have a reach advantage and probably the speed advantage when compared with Johnson. He ceratainly has had the better takedown defense historically according to Fightmetric. He also is more successful when looking to take opponents to the mat. However, that’s all based on history with no idea of what he’ll bring to the table on Saturday night due to the long layoff. It’s a fight that Swick would have no problems winning if the layoff isn’t a factor. I imagine Johnson’s only way of winning is a puncher’s chance or landing one of his patented triangle chokes if the fight goes to the ground. Swick has been submitted once and knocked out once in his career while fighting good competition.

Johnson has a tendency to get hit on the feet quite a bit and has shown some cardio issues in the past, granted some of those fights were on short notice. I don’t think he’ll be able to take Swick down in this one. I see Swick using his reach advantage and footwork to control the distance to win a decision.