Two of the most physically imposing athletes in the welterweight division met and Josh Koscheck emerged the clear winner.
Koscheck opened the action by landing a hard left hook that stunned Johnson briefly. Soon after he landed a hard right that Johnson quickly answered with a right of his own. Johnson began scoring with leg kicks and then stunned Koscheck with a hard right hand. A stunned Koscheck quickly worked for a take down from the clinch but Johnson sprawled.
Johnson then fired a blatantly illegal knee to Koscheck's face -- that appeared to have been partially blocked by Koscheck -- Koscheck then took a lengthy recovery time and Refereee Mario Yamasaki deducted a point from Johnson. Johnson's finger nail appeared to scratch Koscheck's eye during the collision.
Yamasaki disregarded the doctor's inclination to stop the fight and restarted the action. Koscheck responded by shooting for a single leg take down and got Johnson's back. A hard knee to the body set up an attempt to take Johnson's back that was evaded.
Round two saw Johnson coming out firing and switching stances. Koscheck then caught Johnson with an eye poke that briefly paused the action. Koscheck landed a high kick on the restart. Then Johnson caught another eye poke. Johnson came out angry. And they traded a tough barrage of shots before Koscheck shot in and took Johnson down.
From top position, Koscheck landed a series of short sharp elbows to Johnson's face. After taking a beating, Johnson was gasping for air and Koscheck took his back. Then he sunk in the choke and got the tap out at 4:47 of the second round.