UFC president Dana White criticizes flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and his decided lack of interest in facing T.J. Dillashaw.
The next successful title defense for UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson (26-2-1) will be a record-breaking one. “Mighty Mouse” is currently tied with Anderson Silva for most title defense victories, with ten, but there’s a point of contention as far as who will be DJ’s eleventh opponent.
With former bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw’s UFC 213 bout vs. Cody Garbrandt scrapped due to a Garbrandt injury, the UFC had plans for Dillashaw to drop down to 125 to take on Mighty Mouse in August. Johnson doesn’t seem interested in the matchup, and tweeted that he’s waiting to take on Ray Borg, all while saying Dillashaw needs to get a win at flyweight before getting a title shot.
On the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Dana White expressed disbelief that Johnson doesn’t want Dillashaw next.
“D.J. doesn’t want to fight him,” said White. “Why? It’s insanity. This is the first fight ever in D.J.’s history that he actually gets pay-per-view [points]. He gets pay-per-view on this one and this is the first real fight people will care about and want to see on pay-per-view and he is refusing to fight T.J. Dillashaw.”
Johnson’s last two fights have not been on pay-per-view, with his win over Tim Elliott headlining the TUF 24 Finale, while his April submission of Wilson Reis was the main event of UFC on FOX 24 in Kansas City. Historically, UFC PPV main events involving Demetrious Johnson have done poorly, with none of them doing more than 205,000 buys. The planned August 19th PPV would reportedly take place in Johnson’s home state of Washington, at the KeyArena in Seattle.
White later emphasized that Johnson isn’t in a position to dictate who he fights next.
“At the end of the day, you know how I am with that stuff, unfortunately for D.J. you don’t make the fights around here - I do. So that’s the fight we’re pushing for. That’s the fight. I talked to T.J. Dillashaw yesterday. That’s the fight he wants, he’s ready, he’s already cutting weight.”
