Judge Mathis says It's Tough to Defend Faizon Love But ...

Judge Mathis says Faizon Love has one way out of his assault case ... but hizzoner thinks the attack video will be hard to overcome.

Mathis was at LAX Wednesday when he told our photog Faizon should be proactive by showing contrition in advance of his trial.

Thing to remember here ... we got Mathis before Faizon told us he was threatened and had spit hurled his way.

As for how bad the video is on a 1 to 10 scale ... Mathis doesn't have good news for Faizon.