Brandon Gibson: Jackson-Wink MMA dethroned 'unbeatable' Ronda Rousey – Demetrious Johnson next

The Jackson-Wink MMA camp in Albuquerque, N.M., is no stranger to taking out dominant, seemingly flawless champions. Striking coach Brandon Gibson is confident Demetrious Johnson will be the next to fall.

Gibson is set to corner Ray Borg(11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) on Saturday at UFC 216 when he attempts to take the UFC flyweight championship from Johnson (26-2-1 MMA, 14-1-1 UFC), who is on the cusp of setting the record for most consecutive title defenses in UFC history. “Mighty Mouse” is a heavy betting favorite going into the fight, but that doesn’t deter Gibson’s faith.

It’s a somewhat familiar situation for Gibson. Jackson-Wink MMA fighter Holly Holm entered UFC 193 in November 2015 as a massive underdog to former women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey, who was undefeated and at her championship peak. By the second round, Rousey was knocked out cold, and the MMA world was left in awe.

Gibson said that’s going to happen again.

“Since I met him, I knew his goal was to beat Demetrious,” Gibson told MMAjunkie. “Not only to be UFC champion, but to be the one to dethrone the great. That has equal stake for him. Demetrious has been champ since Ray was in high school. A lot of these great champions look unbeatable. We were able to put a game plan to beat the unbeatable Ronda Rousey. Cody (Garbrandt) did it against Dominick (Cruz). There’s a history of those great champs (falling). Their time is going to come.”

UFC 216 takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Borg vs. Johnson co-headlines the pay-per-view main card following prelims on FX and UFC Fight Pass.

The obvious difference between Rousey and Johnson are the contrast in skillsets. Rousey’s judo and submission ability took her a long way, but once she ran into strikers who could avoid being taken down, her downfall began. Johnson is among the most well-rounded fighters in the game, and throughout his nearly five-year title reign has defeated numerous stylistic challenges.

Gibson said Johnson’s longevity as champion is somewhat of a disadvantage, though. In more than four hours of UFC cage time, Johnson has shown many different tools, but Gibson said that only provides more footage to discover the shortcomings in his game.

“I have a lot of respect for Demetrious,” Gibson said. “Obviously he’s been such a great champion, and he’s shown so many different facets of his game against so many different types of styles. He has a very high fighter IQ, he has a lot of amazing gifts, amazing cardio and he can fight at any range, at any level. He’s a brilliant fighter, he comes from a great team, but I do think in those four hours of cage time, he’s shown obvious flaws, and those are what we’re going to try to exploit.”

At 24, an argument can be made Borg’s title shot is coming too early in his career. He clearly doesn’t believe that, because he’s made the bold proclamation that he won’t merely beat the champion but send him into retirement.

Gibson said he’s not necessarily convinced Johnson will never fight again after his pupil takes the belt, but he does reject the notion Borg is not yet ready to face one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the history of the sport.

“No matter when this fight took place, he knew he’s the guy to beat Demetrious,” Gibson said. “Ray’s the guy – he has all the tools. I think he’s a bad style matchup for Demetrious. I know a lot of people have said that, but I think Ray has all the tools to come out victorious on Saturday.”

For more on UFC 216, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.