Outside Source
Making his promotional debut against Schultz at UFC Perth, Ben Johnston (5-3) gave his all and won the first two rounds on the scorecards. The defending Schultz had no answer on the ground, with his submission attempts for the first 10 minutes unable to land. However, when Round 3 struck, “Party Time” turned the tables courtesy of a slick guillotine choke.
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The submission danger forced Johnston to spit out his mouthpiece so he could continue breathing. As referee Rich Mitchell returned Johnston’s mouthpiece, Schultz redoubled his effort on his guillotine. The Aussie could hold on no longer, surrendering to give Schultz an impressive come-from-behind win. Schultz admits that he didn’t listen to his coaches in the early rounds, as he wanted to ease into the fight. “Party Time” was confident that he would catch his opponent eventually, but he just needed to find the right opening. Schultz explained his post-fight interview:
“Taking away from this–keeping my fight clean, maybe putting a little more effort in the first couple of rounds, listening to my coaches. I could hear them, mentally I was really focused, I was just physically out of focus,” the fighter expressed. “They told me to get up and stuff, I just didn’t. I didn’t wanna work that hard. I was like, ‘I’m gonna get the neck at some point. Four to five times [I tried].’ I was lucky it worked. Otherwise, that would have been 25 hours of flying home thinking about how bad I did.”
Schultz (9-3) has finished six of his nine career wins via submission. While he came up short in his first Dana White’s Contender Series opportunity in 2024, his second chance proved to be the one to get him on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster. In his organizational debut this February, Schultz suffered a first-round knockout loss at the hands of Damian Pinas.
Meanwhile, Johnston (5-2) has served as an integral part of Israel Adesanya’s camp, notably assisting the champion to his UFC 287 knockout win over Alex Pereira in 2023. The 35-year-old hadn’t fought since 2024, focusing on coaching instead, before accepting a short-notice opportunity for a UFC debut at Perth on Saturday.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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