Chatting to Submission Radio, Johnson broke down a potential matchup between the pair, and sided with the Brazilian to get the job done against the former Rizin FF star.
“I think Pantoja does (win),” he said.
“I think Pantoja could take a shot. You know, Pantoja hasn’t been dropped. He hasn’t been hurt in all of his UFC career, from what I’ve seen.
“He’s had those great battles against him versus Brandon Moreno. And right there, that’ll be a great matchup – Kyoji Horiguchi versus Brandon Moreno.
“There were some matches to be made in the UFC flyweight division without Horiguchi ever fighting Alex Pantoja. But, if he wants to fight for the belt, he’s going to have to fight Pantoja. And I think, when it comes down, it’s going to be Pantoja. I think Pantoja, he has a hard chin, he has great grappling.”
Johnson departed the UFC back in October 2018 in a highly-publicised “trade” that saw him move to ONE Championship, with Ben Askren moving in the opposite direction.
It meant that UFC fans were deprived the prospect of Johnson taking on current champ Pantoja, and when asked how he saw that fantasy fight playing out, the former UFC champion said
“I think it would be an exciting fight,” he said.
“The biggest thing that Pantoja does very well is that he’s very, very durable and he is very relentless in, you know, getting across the void, you know, getting his arms on somebody (and) outgrappling him. I feel like his strongest ability is to outgrapple people and outscramble people.
“When he fights Brandon Moreno, you can see little chinks in his armour because of, Moreno’s athleticism. And Brandon Moreno (has) technical ability about boxing him and being quick on his feet.
“He’s so good about being durable and tough. He ate some good shots from Kai Asakura. And I think for me, it would have to be, I can’t let him on my back. Can’t let him get a body triangle, which I’ve been put in before. And then I’ve got to make sure I stick and move, fight him in the clinch. Get out, out-cardio him. It’ll be a very, very tough fight.”
