Preview: DWCS Season 3, Episode 5

Christian Lohsen vs. J.J. Okanovich

Lohsen was born with fighting in his blood. The 24-year-old trains out of his family’s gym, Darkwolf MMA, where his two parents are the lead instructors and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts under Cesar Gracie. The Floridian enters the cage with a 7-1 professional record and has managed to handle his business in each of his last three bouts. “Hollywood” is a tall lightweight at 6-foot-2. The long and lengthy southpaw is not a strong striker, but he has shown improvement in the area throughout his career. The Island Fights veteran throws mostly arm punches, though he does not generate much power because he fails to sit down on his strikes. He has not learned how to use his reach yet and tends to keep his chin high in the air, which will cost him against higher-level strikers. He mostly uses his striking to close the distance, at which point he can either grapple or land slicing elbows in the clinch. Lohsen’s grappling is his bread and butter. The former high school wrestler is difficult to take down. He often fails to set up his takedowns with strikes but makes up for it by cutting angles and chaining together attacks to get his opponent to the canvas. Lohsen likes to land strikes in the grappling transitions but shines in the submission department. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt has won six fights by way of submission. The young fighter has a large arsenal of submission attacks and even pulled off the rare banana split in his last bout. This is a significant step up in competition for the Floridian. His previous opponents had a combined 22-28 record when they faced him.

Okanovich started his professional career in the worst way possible, losing by knockout in just 45 seconds. Since his debut loss, Okanovich has rattled off six straight wins, four of them by submission. The Bellator MMA veteran lives up to his nickname as “The Bosnian Bomber” because he throws every punch with bad intentions. He is not particularly technical with his striking and prefers to throw wild haymakers. His overhand right, shovel uppercut and teep are his most dangerous strikes. While Okanovich is a brawler, he does do a solid job of avoiding strikes with his head movement. The American Kickboxing Academy export is a serviceable wrestler. He likes to use his power to back his opponent towards the fence before shooting in for a takedown. The Californian is an extremely aggressive submission threat, looking for a fight-ending move in every scramble. He makes the mistake of not securing position before attempting a submission. While this tendency has left him compromised in the past, he does have the ability to snatch a submission from nearly every position. Armbars are his maneuver.

Okanovich is more well-rounded than Lohsen, but his reckless submission style could get him in trouble against a decorated grappler. He should try to keep this fight standing but past performances indicate he will do otherwise. Expect to see some fun scrambles, with Lohsen holding the dominant positions longer. He could find a submission, but it seems more likely that he ekes out a decision but fails in his bid to net a UFC contract.

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