LOS ANGELES — UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is just as interested as anyone else in the potential superfight between UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and Invicta featherweight champ Cris “Cyborg” Justino.
But “Mighty Mouse” has minimal interest in seeing the bout contested at 135 pounds.
At a Monday media event in downtown Los Angeles promoting his upcoming UFC 191 title defense against John Dodson, Johnson said that Justino is simply too big to make 135 in a healthy manner — particularly with the USADA’s ban on IV rehydration after weigh-ins soon to go into effect.
“The Cyborg and Ronda Rousey fight, Ronda is like, ‘I’ll fight you at 135,’ Johnson said. “If [Cyborg] made 135, and granted, she did the drugs and that’s in the past and she’s a big woman from doing that, but her making 135 pounds, it wouldn’t be the same Cris Cyborg as at 145.”
While most of the public pressure has been on Justino drop down to 135 pounds, “Mighty Mouse” went so far as to call the notion “garbage.”
“When people get pumped up at the fight, i can’t get pumped up,” Johnson said. “Because it’s not going to be the same Cris Cyborg at 145 that’s going to be all drained, especially without an IV, to me, that’s garbage.”