The heavyweight division never ages. That much is clear when you consider in 2015, over a decade after they first staked their claims as UFC champions, Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski are about to meet each other at UFC 191 with genuine title …
The heavyweight division never ages. That much is clear when you consider in 2015, over a decade after they first staked their claims as UFC champions, Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski are about to meet each other at UFC 191 with genuine title implications on the line. No matter how many times you read it, that sentence will never cease being strange.
For Mir, the circumstances that led to this point were unexpected in two separate ways. Most obviously, Mir was all but assumed to be done last year once Alistair Overeem painted him 10 shades of dark crimson in the defining moment of a career-worst four-fight losing streak. But for a reason more timely, Mir simply didn’t expect to be asked back on such a quick turnaround after slaying Todd Duffee last month with the mother of all punches.
“Actually, I was (surprised),” Mir admitted Thursday on a UFC 191 media conference call. “I got the call just a few days after my fight and was asked if I would contribute to the already great card coming on Labor Day weekend. It would help the card overall, so I stepped up to the opportunity they presented me.”
If Mir was caught off guard by the UFC’s scheduling request, he was even more thunderstruck once he realized who matchmakers actually wanted him to fight.
Even counting Mir’s resurgence, Arlovski is perhaps the most incredible feel-good story to emerge out of the UFC this decade. “The Pitbull” has defied both expectations and Mother Nature by rampaging his way to a No. 4 ranking, led in large part by his electrifying knockout over perennial contender Travis Browne at UFC 187.
The opportunity to thrust Arlovski into a title shot seemed almost too perfect of a match-up to kickstart the heavyweight division in a post-Velasquez world. And even Mir was shocked when the UFC passed it up in favor of booking an immediate rematch between Velasquez and the man who trounced him, Fabricio Werdum.
“I thought that actually it mixed up the division by having [Werdum] take over as the champion,” Mir said. “I thought Andrei was actually going to get the title shot, and I thought that was extremely interesting. But for Cain to get the immediate rematch, the guy is a great champion so I guess you give him that opportunity.
“A lot of people want to put it to the oxygen was very thin there, and I don’t know. I wasn’t in Cain’s training camp, I don’t know how much that really contributed to it. I know that Fabricio was fighting in [elevation], so I think that Fabricio just really had a great night.”
Mir’s surprise is even more understandable considering that had the UFC gone the route of Werdum vs. Arlovski, an outside chance existed that if both Mir and Arlovski won their next fight, their match-up more than 10 years in the making could’ve been held for an actual UFC belt — something that seemed preposterous as recent as a year ago.
Mir can’t help but look at the missed chance there, even if he’s grateful for the opportunity against a top contender.
“Andrei is right, it is just business,” Mir said. “That’s the next fight they wanted me to go and fight. Obviously I admit that I would rather have had more time. I thought that maybe this fight had so much history behind it, that maybe a build-up longer than six weeks would’ve been better for us.
“At the same time, I think both of us represent so many of the same great qualities of persevering through adversity. I would’ve liked it if one of us had the title and the other one came up and was the one who challenged so many years later. I think when you write the story at the end of our lives, that would’ve been a much more interesting read than just kind of hurried, rushed, let’s fight each other now, with both of us right now at this point of our success.”
Still, it’s not as if Mir is disappointed by how things worked out. A win over his old friend Arlovski would throw Mir within shouting distance of a title shot — a fitting end considering 2015 appears to the golden year for heavyweight’s old guard.
“I think this era right now is the best it’s ever been,” Mir said. “I think in the past, we’ve always had top-level guys, but I think it dwindled off after four or five. Right now there are guys who are (ranked) 12, 13, 14 who are great fighters in the heavyweight division. So I think the top-10 right now is extremely stacked and I think it’s the most stacked it’s ever been.”
The heavyweight division never ages. That much is clear when you consider in 2015, over a decade after they first staked their claims as UFC champions, Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski are about to meet each other at UFC 191 with genuine title …
The heavyweight division never ages. That much is clear when you consider in 2015, over a decade after they first staked their claims as UFC champions, Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski are about to meet each other at UFC 191 with genuine title implications on the line. No matter how many times you read it, that sentence will never cease being strange.
For Mir, the circumstances that led to this point were unexpected in two separate ways. Most obviously, Mir was all but assumed to be done last year once Alistair Overeem painted him 10 shades of dark crimson in the defining moment of a career-worst four-fight losing streak. But for a reason more timely, Mir simply didn’t expect to be asked back on such a quick turnaround after slaying Todd Duffee last month with the mother of all punches.
“Actually, I was (surprised),” Mir admitted Thursday on a UFC 191 media conference call. “I got the call just a few days after my fight and was asked if I would contribute to the already great card coming on Labor Day weekend. It would help the card overall, so I stepped up to the opportunity they presented me.”
If Mir was caught off guard by the UFC’s scheduling request, he was even more thunderstruck once he realized who matchmakers actually wanted him to fight.
Even counting Mir’s resurgence, Arlovski is perhaps the most incredible feel-good story to emerge out of the UFC this decade. “The Pitbull” has defied both expectations and Mother Nature by rampaging his way to a No. 4 ranking, led in large part by his electrifying knockout over perennial contender Travis Browne at UFC 187.
The opportunity to thrust Arlovski into a title shot seemed almost too perfect of a match-up to kickstart the heavyweight division in a post-Velasquez world. And even Mir was shocked when the UFC passed it up in favor of booking an immediate rematch between Velasquez and the man who trounced him, Fabricio Werdum.
“I thought that actually it mixed up the division by having [Werdum] take over as the champion,” Mir said. “I thought Andrei was actually going to get the title shot, and I thought that was extremely interesting. But for Cain to get the immediate rematch, the guy is a great champion so I guess you give him that opportunity.
“A lot of people want to put it to the oxygen was very thin there, and I don’t know. I wasn’t in Cain’s training camp, I don’t know how much that really contributed to it. I know that Fabricio was fighting in [elevation], so I think that Fabricio just really had a great night.”
Mir’s surprise is even more understandable considering that had the UFC gone the route of Werdum vs. Arlovski, an outside chance existed that if both Mir and Arlovski won their next fight, their match-up more than 10 years in the making could’ve been held for an actual UFC belt — something that seemed preposterous as recent as a year ago.
Mir can’t help but look at the missed chance there, even if he’s grateful for the opportunity against a top contender.
“Andrei is right, it is just business,” Mir said. “That’s the next fight they wanted me to go and fight. Obviously I admit that I would rather have had more time. I thought that maybe this fight had so much history behind it, that maybe a build-up longer than six weeks would’ve been better for us.
“At the same time, I think both of us represent so many of the same great qualities of persevering through adversity. I would’ve liked it if one of us had the title and the other one came up and was the one who challenged so many years later. I think when you write the story at the end of our lives, that would’ve been a much more interesting read than just kind of hurried, rushed, let’s fight each other now, with both of us right now at this point of our success.”
Still, it’s not as if Mir is disappointed by how things worked out. A win over his old friend Arlovski would throw Mir within shouting distance of a title shot — a fitting end considering 2015 appears to the golden year for heavyweight’s old guard.
“I think this era right now is the best it’s ever been,” Mir said. “I think in the past, we’ve always had top-level guys, but I think it dwindled off after four or five. Right now there are guys who are (ranked) 12, 13, 14 who are great fighters in the heavyweight division. So I think the top-10 right now is extremely stacked and I think it’s the most stacked it’s ever been.”
Bellator allowed Melvin Guillard to choose his own opponent for his debut. And in retrospect, Guillard chose poorly. All-American wrestler Brandon Girtz rag-dolled the UFC veteran for two-and-a-half rounds before fending off a late rally to capture a split decision victory Friday night in the main event of Bellator 141.
The first exchange told the story of the fight, as Girtz (13-4) waded forward and connected on a thunderous overhand right, then tied up Guillard and threw him to the canvas. Guillard (32-15-2, 2 NC) recovered only to be double-legged back to the floor, with Girtz landing heavy in side control. From there the underdog went to work, unloading a salvo of knees to Guillard’s body and closing his left eye with short elbows.
Girtz continued to impose his will on the tentative Guillard throughout the second and third rounds, landing big takedowns and battering Guillard’s cut-up left eye. The pace, however, proved to be unsustainable, and Girtz nearly let the fight slip through his fingers once Guillard found his mark with a huge knee that sent Girtz staggering backward as the clock winded down.
Guillard swarmed with everything he had left, but it wasn’t enough. A failed throw attempt led Guillard back to bottom position, which is exactly where he remained until the fight ended.
Two judges scored the contest 29-27 for Girtz, while the lone dissenter saw it 28-29 for Guillard, giving Girtz the win.
“It feels good,” a relived Girtz said afterward. “It didn’t go exactly how I thought. He’s a lot tougher than I thought he was. He kept going. I thought once it got past the first I’d be able to break him, but he’s a tough kid and he swarmed me at the end.”
In the night’s co-main event, heaps of pre-fight sizzle failed to translate into excitement in the cage, as Patricky Freire (14-6) won a sleepy unanimous decision over Saad Awad (18-7), putting himself into pole position for the next Bellator lightweight title shot.
Action in the fight was scarce, though Freire’s pressure and pair of takedowns likely edged him ahead in the eyes of the judges. The Brazilian earned a clean sweep on the scorecards, 30-27, and afterwards turned his sights towards lightweight champion Will Brooks.
“He talks too much. He’s a clown,” Freire said. “Hey Will, shut up. I’m coming.”
Elsewhere on the card, Justin Wren’s feel-good return to MMA proved to be a success. Fighting for the first time in 1,868 days, having spent the better part of five years aiding the Pygmies of the Congo, Wren (11-2) captured a lopsided unanimous decision over Josh Burns (8-9).
Knees were the weapon of choice for Wren. The 28-year-old battered Burns from inside the clinch with a salvo of Thai knees throughout the fight, highlighted by a second round sequence that saw Burns eat 11 uncontested knees to the head and body.
Burns somehow survived to the finish line, but both men were exhausted by the start of the third round. The pace slowed to such a crawl that Wren was able to pull the old ‘point at your feet, punch you in the face’ routine and still emerge unscathed, much to the delight of the Temecula crowd.
All three judges scored the contest for Wren, with two judges awarding Wren 30-26 scorecards.
“I couldn’t have planned or prepared for the adrenaline dump. Five years off, yeah, there’s a lot of ring rust and I felt it,” Wren said.
“My knee is swollen from hitting his head, so he can take a shot, that’s for sure. I’m happy with our fight, I’m disappointed in my performance, but I’m also very happy at the exposure and everything else that was gained for my Pygmy family.”
Veteran featherweight Marloes Coenen (22-7) drew an unexpected shot on the Spike TV card once Lorenzo Hoodinjured his knee at the eleventh hour, and she made the most of it. The former Strikeforce champion tapped Arlene Biencowe (6-5) with a nasty armbar at 3:23 of the second round, improving her Bellator record to 2-0.
Biencowe showed up to brawl, but Coenen had none of it. The 34-year-old blasted Biencowe off her feet early with a double leg, then spent the majority of the opening round fishing for a rear-naked choke from her foe’s back. Coenen repeated the favor in the second stanza, but instead of seizing Biencowe’s back, she rolled for a grisly armbar that bent Biencowe’s left elbow backwards and drew a quick tap.
“I’m so grateful to Mr. Coker over there,” Coenen said. “He was the first big promoter who saw that women are warriors, and I’m as loyal to him as I can be. I’m very, very grateful to him.”
Bellator allowed Melvin Guillard to choose his own opponent for his debut. And in retrospect, Guillard chose poorly. All-American wrestler Brandon Girtz rag-dolled the UFC veteran for two-and-a-half rounds before fending off a late rally to capture a split decision victory Friday night in the main event of Bellator 141.
The first exchange told the story of the fight, as Girtz (13-4) waded forward and connected on a thunderous overhand right, then tied up Guillard and threw him to the canvas. Guillard (32-15-2, 2 NC) recovered only to be double-legged back to the floor, with Girtz landing heavy in side control. From there the underdog went to work, unloading a salvo of knees to Guillard’s body and closing his left eye with short elbows.
Girtz continued to impose his will on the tentative Guillard throughout the second and third rounds, landing big takedowns and battering Guillard’s cut-up left eye. The pace, however, proved to be unsustainable, and Girtz nearly let the fight slip through his fingers once Guillard found his mark with a huge knee that sent Girtz staggering backward as the clock winded down.
Guillard swarmed with everything he had left, but it wasn’t enough. A failed throw attempt led Guillard back to bottom position, which is exactly where he remained until the fight ended.
Two judges scored the contest 29-27 for Girtz, while the lone dissenter saw it 28-29 for Guillard, giving Girtz the win.
“It feels good,” a relived Girtz said afterward. “It didn’t go exactly how I thought. He’s a lot tougher than I thought he was. He kept going. I thought once it got past the first I’d be able to break him, but he’s a tough kid and he swarmed me at the end.”
In the night’s co-main event, heaps of pre-fight sizzle failed to translate into excitement in the cage, as Patricky Freire (14-6) won a sleepy unanimous decision over Saad Awad (18-7), putting himself into pole position for the next Bellator lightweight title shot.
Action in the fight was scarce, though Freire’s pressure and pair of takedowns likely edged him ahead in the eyes of the judges. The Brazilian earned a clean sweep on the scorecards, 30-27, and afterwards turned his sights towards lightweight champion Will Brooks.
“He talks too much. He’s a clown,” Freire said. “Hey Will, shut up. I’m coming.”
Elsewhere on the card, Justin Wren’s feel-good return to MMA proved to be a success. Fighting for the first time in 1,868 days, having spent the better part of five years aiding the Pygmies of the Congo, Wren (11-2) captured a lopsided unanimous decision over Josh Burns (8-9).
Knees were the weapon of choice for Wren. The 28-year-old battered Burns from inside the clinch with a salvo of Thai knees throughout the fight, highlighted by a second round sequence that saw Burns eat 11 uncontested knees to the head and body.
Burns somehow survived to the finish line, but both men were exhausted by the start of the third round. The pace slowed to such a crawl that Wren was able to pull the old ‘point at your feet, punch you in the face’ routine and still emerge unscathed, much to the delight of the Temecula crowd.
All three judges scored the contest for Wren, with two judges awarding Wren 30-26 scorecards.
“I couldn’t have planned or prepared for the adrenaline dump. Five years off, yeah, there’s a lot of ring rust and I felt it,” Wren said.
“My knee is swollen from hitting his head, so he can take a shot, that’s for sure. I’m happy with our fight, I’m disappointed in my performance, but I’m also very happy at the exposure and everything else that was gained for my Pygmy family.”
Veteran featherweight Marloes Coenen (22-7) drew an unexpected shot on the Spike TV card once Lorenzo Hoodinjured his knee at the eleventh hour, and she made the most of it. The former Strikeforce champion tapped Arlene Biencowe (6-5) with a nasty armbar at 3:23 of the second round, improving her Bellator record to 2-0.
Biencowe showed up to brawl, but Coenen had none of it. The 34-year-old blasted Biencowe off her feet early with a double leg, then spent the majority of the opening round fishing for a rear-naked choke from her foe’s back. Coenen repeated the favor in the second stanza, but instead of seizing Biencowe’s back, she rolled for a grisly armbar that bent Biencowe’s left elbow backwards and drew a quick tap.
“I’m so grateful to Mr. Coker over there,” Coenen said. “He was the first big promoter who saw that women are warriors, and I’m as loyal to him as I can be. I’m very, very grateful to him.”
Ex-UFC contender Francis Carmont will meet Philipe Lins in a light heavyweight tournament reserve bout at Bellator MMA: Dynamite 1, with the winner capturing the right to step in for an injured fighter in Bellator’s four-man, No. 1 contender…
Ex-UFC contender Francis Carmont will meet Philipe Lins in a light heavyweight tournament reserve bout at Bellator MMA: Dynamite 1, with the winner capturing the right to step in for an injured fighter in Bellator’s four-man, No. 1 contender tourney.
Bellator officials announced the match-up Friday.
Carmont (23-10) picked up a unanimous decision over Guilherme Viana in his Bellator debut this past March. The win snapped a three-fight losing streak which ultimately cost Carmont his job in the UFC.
Prior to the slump, the 33-year-old Tristar product looked to be a prospect on the rise, winning six straight fights over the likes of Costas Philippou and Lorenz Larkin to kick off his UFC career.
He’ll now hope to continue his newfound momentum against Lins (9-1), a 30-year-old Brazilian who has fought to a 2-1 record inside the Bellator cage.
Lins captured a pair of first-round rear-naked choke victories in his first two Bellator outings, before succumbing to a knee injury against Kelly Anundson in the semifinals of 2014’s Summer Series tournament.
Bellator MMA: Dynamite 1 takes place at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. The event is co-promoted by Bellator and GLORY kickboxing, and will feature both a ring and cage in the arena. The main card will air live on Spike TV.
Former UFC contender Phil Davis, former Bellator champion Emanuel Newton, former Strikeforce champion Muhammed Lawal, and one-time title challenger Linton Vassell make up the rest of the four-man light heavyweight tournament bracket.
An updated Bellator MMA: Dynamite 1 fight card can be seen below.
Liam McGeary vs. Tito Ortiz – for the Bellator light heavyweight title
Saulo Cavalari vs. Zack Mwekassa – for the GLORY light heavyweight title
Gabriel Varga vs. Serhiy Adamchuck – for the GLORY featherweight title
Phil Davis, Emanuel Newton, Linton Vassell, Muhammed Lawal – one-night Bellator light heavyweight tournament
Paul Daley vs. Fernando Gonzalez – GLORY welterweight fight
Josh Thomson vs. Mike Bronzoulis – Bellator lightweight fight
Francis Carmont vs. Philipe Lins – Bellator tournament reserve fight
MMA Fighting has Bellator 141 results for the Guillard vs. Girtz fight card Friday night at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif.In the main event, Melvin Guillard squares off against Brandon Girtz in a lightweight contest. Patr…
MMA Fighting has Bellator 141 results for the Guillard vs. Girtz fight card Friday night at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in Temecula, Calif.
In the main event, Melvin Guillard squares off against Brandon Girtz in a lightweight contest. Patricky Freire has a long-awaited clash with Saad Awad in the co-main event.
Demetrious Johnson can’t say for sure when, but at some point he just stopped caring. Maybe it was the 400th time he had to answer for the same non-issues that finally did him in. Who knows? Either way, the only flyweight champion the UFC has ever known, the same man who doubles as the most likely inheritor to Anderson Silva’s UFC record treasure trove, is over it.
“At one point in time in my career, it was like, ‘oh, he never finishes nobody.’ Then the next thing you know, I’m breaking peoples’ arms, making them tap out and knocking them out,” Johnson said Thursday on a UFC 191 media conference call. “Then the next thing you know it’s, ‘oh, I don’t like his personality.’ It’s like, okay, well, if you don’t like who I am, I can’t help you there, buddy.
“Landing the latest submission ever in the UFC history, I’m more focused on that and that’s all that matters to me. Going out there and performing, showing that I’m a well-rounded fighter who can strike, grapple, submit, clinch. Everything. You look into an encyclopedia and ask what fighter can do any type of martial art at a high-caliber level, my picture will show up.”
Johnson’s contempt is easy to forgive, considering this has become such a familiar refrain for the uber-talented 29-year-old. Seemingly every time the flyweight king defends his belt, all the hand-wringing over his lack of drawing power somehow pushes its way back to the forefront of the narrative. It’s a curious spectacle simply because it only happens to “Mighty Mouse,” and in a broader sense, the flyweights as a whole.
And it’s even more curious because all that chatter comes mainly from the group that should care about such things the least: the fans. The UFC obviously trusts Johnson enough to keep thrusting him into big spots. His UFC 191 rematch with Dodson will be the seventh straight event Johnson has headlined. The last four of the those have been on pay-per-view, the UFC’s most prized stage, and the three previous were atop big FOX in front of millions.
Johnson’s contemporaries, too, shower him with praise. Conor McGregor has spoken volumes about the high esteem he holds Johnson in, and in a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), Ronda Rousey avowed Johnson as her favorite male fighter in the UFC. Her reasoning? He’s the most well-rounded fighter around, and he fights so fast that it looks like something straight out of DragonBall Z.
“Well she’s very educated and I’ve got nothing but love for Ronda Rousey,” Johnson said. “And that’s the thing, I’ve never walked across another fighter in the UFC (who had a problem), from heavyweight all the way down to women’s strawweight, middleweight, other champions. I’ve always gotten great praises and I give it back to those guys as well.
“So it’s only the fans and uneducated fools out there who say, ‘oh, you’re boring.’ If you say so, but you just don’t understand what I’m doing. You just don’t understand the positives and the technique that I bring to the table.”
Those who defend Johnson point to the fact that his division isn’t doing him many favors. And it’s true. Joseph Benavidez, the man who was supposed to be Johnson’s equal, forfeited his rematch in two minutes. Ian McCall, the man who nearly stopped Johnson before all of this ever started, can’t even climb back to give himself a third chance. The rest are a hodgepodge of analogous names and voices who Johnson has dispatched with disturbing ease.
So other than point out how good he is — which, by the way, Johnson does all the time — what else can he do without a proper rival to bring out his best?
“Dana White has gone on the record saying it,” Johnson said. “When Anderson Silva first showed up to the UFC, he wasn’t the star he was. It took somebody like Chael Sonnen to come by to make everybody notice. The same thing with Chris Weidman. He really hasn’t taken off until his last fight after he beat Vitor Belfort.”
The only outlier to the whole equation is John Dodson, the ball of furious energy who Johnson meets Sept. 5 at UFC 191. Dodson was seconds away from taking Johnson’s head off when the two first met in 2013, and he’s been jonesing for a shot at redemption ever since. In a weight class rife with cookie-cutter choruses, Dodson has never seen a mic he didn’t enjoy.
So is possible that Dodson is the one who could propel Johnson away from the champion’s never-ending deluge of criticism?
Sure, it’s possible. But then again, what if he’s just like all the others?
“The question I come back to is, what happens after this?” Johnson said. “Regardless of if I lose or if I win, what happens after this? And that’s what I’m always looking forward to in the future. Let’s say I go out there, I put on a spectacular performance and I end up beating John Dodson. People are still going to talk. People are still going to say, ‘ah, well.’
“When I knocked out Joseph Benavidez, one of the comments that made me laugh so hard was: ‘yeah man, I sat there and watched Joseph Benavidez get knocked out by Demetrious Johnson and I just shrugged my shoulders and went out and bought a burrito.’ Okay. That’s good. So like I said, I’m not focused on trying to get the fans’ notoriety and getting them rallied behind me. If you want to see great mixed martial arts, tune in when I fight. If you want to see drama and all of that stuff, you guys can go watch Bachelors in Paradise. They’ll give you enough drama you can want to watch.”
Demetrious Johnson can’t say for sure when, but at some point he just stopped caring. Maybe it was the 400th time he had to answer for the same non-issues that finally did him in. Who knows? Either way, the only flyweight champion the UFC has ever known, the same man who doubles as the most likely inheritor to Anderson Silva’s UFC record treasure trove, is over it.
“At one point in time in my career, it was like, ‘oh, he never finishes nobody.’ Then the next thing you know, I’m breaking peoples’ arms, making them tap out and knocking them out,” Johnson said Thursday on a UFC 191 media conference call. “Then the next thing you know it’s, ‘oh, I don’t like his personality.’ It’s like, okay, well, if you don’t like who I am, I can’t help you there, buddy.
“Landing the latest submission ever in the UFC history, I’m more focused on that and that’s all that matters to me. Going out there and performing, showing that I’m a well-rounded fighter who can strike, grapple, submit, clinch. Everything. You look into an encyclopedia and ask what fighter can do any type of martial art at a high-caliber level, my picture will show up.”
Johnson’s contempt is easy to forgive, considering this has become such a familiar refrain for the uber-talented 29-year-old. Seemingly every time the flyweight king defends his belt, all the hand-wringing over his lack of drawing power somehow pushes its way back to the forefront of the narrative. It’s a curious spectacle simply because it only happens to “Mighty Mouse,” and in a broader sense, the flyweights as a whole.
And it’s even more curious because all that chatter comes mainly from the group that should care about such things the least: the fans. The UFC obviously trusts Johnson enough to keep thrusting him into big spots. His UFC 191 rematch with Dodson will be the seventh straight event Johnson has headlined. The last four of the those have been on pay-per-view, the UFC’s most prized stage, and the three previous were atop big FOX in front of millions.
Johnson’s contemporaries, too, shower him with praise. Conor McGregor has spoken volumes about the high esteem he holds Johnson in, and in a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), Ronda Rousey avowed Johnson as her favorite male fighter in the UFC. Her reasoning? He’s the most well-rounded fighter around, and he fights so fast that it looks like something straight out of DragonBall Z.
“Well she’s very educated and I’ve got nothing but love for Ronda Rousey,” Johnson said. “And that’s the thing, I’ve never walked across another fighter in the UFC (who had a problem), from heavyweight all the way down to women’s strawweight, middleweight, other champions. I’ve always gotten great praises and I give it back to those guys as well.
“So it’s only the fans and uneducated fools out there who say, ‘oh, you’re boring.’ If you say so, but you just don’t understand what I’m doing. You just don’t understand the positives and the technique that I bring to the table.”
Those who defend Johnson point to the fact that his division isn’t doing him many favors. And it’s true. Joseph Benavidez, the man who was supposed to be Johnson’s equal, forfeited his rematch in two minutes. Ian McCall, the man who nearly stopped Johnson before all of this ever started, can’t even climb back to give himself a third chance. The rest are a hodgepodge of analogous names and voices who Johnson has dispatched with disturbing ease.
So other than point out how good he is — which, by the way, Johnson does all the time — what else can he do without a proper rival to bring out his best?
“Dana White has gone on the record saying it,” Johnson said. “When Anderson Silva first showed up to the UFC, he wasn’t the star he was. It took somebody like Chael Sonnen to come by to make everybody notice. The same thing with Chris Weidman. He really hasn’t taken off until his last fight after he beat Vitor Belfort.”
The only outlier to the whole equation is John Dodson, the ball of furious energy who Johnson meets Sept. 5 at UFC 191. Dodson was seconds away from taking Johnson’s head off when the two first met in 2013, and he’s been jonesing for a shot at redemption ever since. In a weight class rife with cookie-cutter choruses, Dodson has never seen a mic he didn’t enjoy.
So is possible that Dodson is the one who could propel Johnson away from the champion’s never-ending deluge of criticism?
Sure, it’s possible. But then again, what if he’s just like all the others?
“The question I come back to is, what happens after this?” Johnson said. “Regardless of if I lose or if I win, what happens after this? And that’s what I’m always looking forward to in the future. Let’s say I go out there, I put on a spectacular performance and I end up beating John Dodson. People are still going to talk. People are still going to say, ‘ah, well.’
“When I knocked out Joseph Benavidez, one of the comments that made me laugh so hard was: ‘yeah man, I sat there and watched Joseph Benavidez get knocked out by Demetrious Johnson and I just shrugged my shoulders and went out and bought a burrito.’ Okay. That’s good. So like I said, I’m not focused on trying to get the fans’ notoriety and getting them rallied behind me. If you want to see great mixed martial arts, tune in when I fight. If you want to see drama and all of that stuff, you guys can go watch Bachelors in Paradise. They’ll give you enough drama you can want to watch.”
