Mack Ripped up and ready for war!!!

[CFH]

I hate to say this, but this is the outcome I expected. Mack has never shown that he is able to deal with pressure fighters. I didn't see the fight, but I thought it would take longer than it did. I expected stamina to be the main problem facing Mack, but it sounds like Johnson just overwhelmed him. He'll be back though, he's still a very solid fighter.

Mack started the fight off nicely, using his speed and finding lots of openings. He was landing his right/overhand right at will for a while. His left snapping in first to set it up. Johnson keep pressuring and was jabbing non stop. And it was a very stiff jab. It looked like that along with body shots that he started to throw were beginning to wear on Mack by the 4th. Mack's output went down and he seemed to glide and I expected he was savin energy to come out hard. Johnson kept the same game plan, pressuring and it was tellingly wearing. And when Mack tried to open up and fire it was wild hooks. It came unglued then and he got caught throwing them and the end was not far off. The 2nd KD he was hurt and Johnson was not going to back off that obv.

I think Mack tried to fight way too close. He really needed more mobility and in and out against a guy like this. The distance this fight was fought was in Johnson's favor, imo. He had a target to hit for too long. Mack had better speed I believe, but needed to use it more effectively. But who knows. Is an easy game from the bleachers.

Sux, I really wanted to see Yusaf win this.

I really wanted to see him win as well. He and his team all seem like genuinely good people.

I expected him to start out well, like you describe, but even in the Henry fight I thought he started to visibly tire later on and Henry couldn't carry Johnson's gym bag. I did hope that Johnson might be in significant decline and that Mack had caught him at the right time, but that clearly isn't the case. The blueprint to beat him has been laid by other pressure fighters and Johnson is one of the best in the game at breaking down fighters with his relentless assault.

Mack will be back, but I doubt if his ceiling is any higher than a title challenger. Not that there is anything wrong with that, he's accomplished a great deal in the sport, but he's just not an elite fighter at this stage.