Demetrious Johnson is slated to defend the UFC flyweight title against Henry Cejudo while former UFC champ Cody Garbrandt will challenge TJ Dillashaw for the UFC bantamweight title at the upcoming UFC 227 pay-per-view event.
For months before these fights were announced, UFC President Dana White pushed for Johnson to fight Dillashaw but Johnson was not being receptive to a fight with Dillashaw even though White and other UFC officials were pushing for it last year, which ultimately led to White mocking Johnson for it and wanting a title defense against Ray Borg.
In a recent interview to promote this upcoming title defense and pay-per-view event, Johnson stated that he accepted a superfight against Dillashaw but had to pull out of the fight due to an injury.
“I accepted the fight, I got injured, I had surgery, and they never offered it to me after I got injured,” Johnson said on today’s UFC 227 media conference call (transcript courtesy of MMAJunkie). “When they offered it to me I accepted, I got injured and got surgery, and then when it came time to fight again, from my understanding, from my management’s point of view, T.J. got offered to fight Cody (Garbrandt) with a brand new deal, so God bless him for getting a new deal to fight Cody.
“So the entire lead-up to this fight, even in July, I was never offered to fight T.J. Dillashaw. Before I got injured I was up for fighting him, then they moved on and went with Cody and T.J.”
“If the money’s right,” Johnson said. “I’ve always been up front about these super fights. Everyone keeps asking me. If the money’s not there and the compensation’s not there, then I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. It’s obviously up to my management to make that happen. My management knows what I want, the UFC knows what I want and for me, I just show up and fight the No. 1 contender in the flyweight division and will continue to do that until something comes to my table that’s appetizing.”
“I’m sure he’s going to come out and try to show me something new, and I’m looking forward to it,” Johnson said. “I’ve had rematches before. This isn’t the first time. Taken on John Dodson twice and fought Joseph Benavidez twice. Obviously you have to fight a little different. It’s a brand new fight so whatever happened in the past is the past. I expect to see a newly minted Henry Cejudo and I’m going to go out there and test his skills.”
The UFC 227 pay-per-view event is set to take place on Saturday, August 4, 2018, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California with the the main card airing on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FX at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
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