Demetrious Johnson is a businessman through and through.
At UFC 217, Bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw reclaimed his belt with a spectacular second round knockout of Cody Garbrandt. Since then he has been campaigning hard for a super-fight with Demetrious Johnson for the Flyweight belt.
Johnson has appeared to be disinterested with the fight. But in a recent interview with ESPN, Johnson explained that he would take the fight, if the money was right.
“A lot of media and fans think that’s a way of turning down fights or ducking someone, but that’s a way of being a smart businessman and getting the most money you can get. … I’ll wait for that opportunity, because in that one card, I’ll basically make more money than three fights — a year and a half of my life — [combined].”
“I’d rather have somebody else main event, [someone] who is going to bring in way more PPVs. In my opinion, that’s held up the fight on my end. I’ve seen guys jump on [stacked] PPV cards and make $1.5 million, fighting an inferior opponent than who I’m about to fight. Me and TJ could fight on a smaller card and pull 275,000 buys, get an extra check for $75,000. My management told me, ‘You know what, we’ll hold out for a big event.'”
Johnson is the longest reigning champion in UFC history and is generally considered to be in the greatest-of-all-time conversation. However, many aren’t impressed with the level of competition he is facing, and he certainly seems to lack that intangible starpoewr that the UFC wants in it’s champions. His most recent PPV card only drew a reported 120,000 buys, so waiting to hop on a big card would mean a big payday for DJ.
“If we can get three title fights – a champions vs. champions edition – that should do well,” Johnson said. “If they did Georges St-Pierre vs. Tyron Woodley, Amanda Nunes vs. [Cris] Cyborg and me vs. TJ, they can send me the contract. They can negotiate that contract now.”
Then DJ made an extraordinarily bold claim. In the past, UFC boss Dana White has made thinly veiled threats to DJ about stripping his belt or dissolving the entire Flyweight division. But it sounds like DJ isn’t scared of sticking to his terms.
“I’m straightforward,” Johnson said. “If UFC comes back and says, ‘You know what, Demetrious, we’re not going to give you that,’ I’ll say, ‘Perfect, send me the No. 1 contender in the flyweight division and TJ can stay up and fight whoever he wants.’ That’s how I am when it comes to this.
“I’m not going to sit here and f**king argue. ‘This is what I want. If you’re not going to give it to me, that’s fine. I’ll just keep fighting guys in my division. You want to strip me? Fine, perfect. Strip me. I’ll work my way back up the ladder.’”
It’s likely the TJ vs DJ fight will happen sometime this summer, perhaps even on a big card. But the UFC has a hard enough time putting one super-fight together – getting three fights with five champions on the same card like DJ wants is an extraordinarily tall order.
For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
