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History · 2015 · UFC on FOX: Dos Anjos vs. Cowboy 2 · Michael Johnson vs Nate Diaz
From the tape · 19 Dec 2015

Michael Johnson vs Nate Diaz

UFC on FOX: Dos Anjos vs. Cowboy 2 · Orlando, Florida, USA
Result

Nate Diaz beat Michael Johnson

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
3 of 3
Clock
5:00
LightweightMain cardReferee · Jorge Alonso

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

Red corner MichaelJohnson“The Menace”Kill Cliff FC · Springfield, Missouri
VSOn the tape
ND
Blue corner NateDiazCesar Gracie Fight Team · Stockton, California
Lightweight3 rounds19 Dec 2015
The story going in
  • Has finished 3 of 8 UFC wins.
  • Has finished 10 of 12 UFC wins.
  • Carries 40 points more takedown defence than Diaz.
  • 20 UFC bouts deep — 7 more than Johnson.
25-20
Record
22-13
−1 yr29
Age
30
5' 10"
Height
+2″6' 0"
73″
Reach
+3″76″
Southpaw
Stance
Southpaw
13
UFC bouts
+720
3/838% of wins
Finishes
+46%10/1283% of wins
Kill Cliff FC
Gym
Cesar Gracie Fight Team
Springfield, Missouri
From
Stockton, California
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

3 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Michael Johnson30 sig landed
HEAD17%5 of 45BODY33%10 of 28LEGS50%15 of 21
Nate Diaz21 sig landed
HEAD81%17 of 58BODY5%1 of 3LEGS14%3 of 5
30 of 94
Sig.
strikes
21 of 66
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:00
Control
0:00
Distance 30Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 21Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Johnson firstDerek Cleary10–9Chris Lee9–10Roy Silbert10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Michael Johnson37 sig landed
HEAD49%18 of 61BODY27%10 of 23LEGS24%9 of 15
Nate Diaz69 sig landed
HEAD93%64 of 118BODY1%1 of 2LEGS6%4 of 4
37 of 99
Sig.
strikes
69 of 124
0 of 0
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:03
Control
0:00
Distance 37Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 67Clinch 2Ground 0
Judges · this round · Johnson firstDerek Cleary9–10Chris Lee9–10Roy Silbert9–10
Round 35:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Michael Johnson36 sig landed
HEAD58%21 of 79BODY22%8 of 18LEGS19%7 of 11
Nate Diaz63 sig landed
HEAD86%54 of 97BODY8%5 of 8LEGS6%4 of 5
36 of 108
Sig.
strikes
63 of 110
1 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 0
0:16
Control
0:00
Distance 36Clinch 0Ground 0
Where it
happened
Distance 60Clinch 3Ground 0
Judges · this round · Johnson firstDerek Cleary9–10Chris Lee10–9Roy Silbert9–10

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Jorge Alonso
Michael JohnsonNate Diaz
Official totals — Michael Johnson first
JudgeTotal
Derek Cleary2.0 avg spread · 42% wide28–29
Chris Lee2.0 avg spread · 44% wide28–29
Roy Silbert2.0 avg spread · 44% wide28–29

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 18 scored, Michael Johnson first · unofficial

Dave Meltzer Wrestling Observer27–30
MM AMania.com27–30
Jim Edwards MMALatestNews.com27–30
Rob Young CombatPress.com27–30
Dallas Winston BloodyElbow.com28–29
Hunter Homistek MMAFighting.com28–29
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com28–29
Brian Knapp Sherdog.com28–29
Jordan Breen Sherdog.com28–29
MM AJunkie.com28–29
Craig Amos BleacherReport.com28–29
MM ABrasil.com.br28–29
Paul Fontaine WrestlingObserver.com28–29
Adrian MacNair MMAMania.com28–29
Nick Baldwin BloodyElbow.com28–29
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com28–29
Rob Tatum CombatPress.com28–29
Severe MMA.com28–29

Fan vote · unofficial

29-28 Diaz · 48%30-27 Diaz · 36%29-28 Johnson · 6%30-28 Diaz · 2%30-26 Diaz · 2%

239 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Michael Johnson

0.57takedowns / 15 min
0.57 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.05 / 15m
1.50 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
3.50 / 15m
38%
ACCURACY
30%
0.00 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.30 / 15m

Nate Diaz

1.05takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (5.32 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked roster-wide

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Michael Johnson↑ +5.2pp
open 71.0%close 76.2%
Nate Diaz↓ −5.2pp
open 29.0%close 23.8%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Michael Johnson opened at 71.0% and closed at 76.2% (+5.2pp), with Nate Diaz moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Michael Johnson-305-37071.0%76.2%+5.2pp
Nate Diaz22530729.0%23.8%−5.2pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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