Daniel Cormier: Anthony 'King Kong' Johnson needs more than knockout power to beat me at UFC 206

Since losing to Daniel Cormier at UFC 187 a year ago, Anthony Johnson has racked up three straight knockout victories and a chance to challenge "DC" for the light heavyweight belt one more time, which is set to go down on Dec. 10, 2016 at UFC 206 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The problem?

"Rumble" hasn't really improved his overall game since then, according to Cormier, as he says since losing to him Anthony simply went back to looking for the quick knockout, which is not enough in Cormier's eyes to dethrone him from the top of the 205-pound mountain.

"DC" breaks it down on "The MMA Hour."

"He just went back to doing everything he was doing before I fought him. The most telling thing, and it was something that his coaches gave me without actually wanting to give it to me, was when we were fighting and I was on top his coaches started yelling 'Don't give up.' That's crazy to me. That tells me that they've seen that in him a lot of times. To yell that in the middle of a fight is as bad as it gets, especially when the guy that you are fighting again has heard it and I know that when things get tough, you guys know what happens to Anthony. I respect Anthony and I like him a lot, I'll be honest. I think he's a phenomenal fighter and tough as nails. He hits hard, but the truth is, if he doesn't knock me out he can't win the fight. That's really not enough. You can't have just one avenue to victory. He has to knock me out because Anthony Johnson can not out-hustle me for 25 minutes, I know Johnson is not going to submit me and the only way he can beat me to knock me out and one avenue to victory is not enough."

Furthermore, Cormier likes the fact that the masses make Johnson out to look like an indestructible "King Kong" with his previous wins -- like his 13-second drubbing of Glover Teixeira -- because it will make his upcoming victory over him that much more impressive.

Still, Cormier doesn't deny the fact that Johnson's knockout power is legit (proof), but if he doesn't connect on him early, their upcoming title fight rematch will be deja vu all over again.

Anyone (dis) agree?