That’s a “Mighty” big fight purse.
Demetrious Johnson, the UFC flyweight champion, is down for a superfight with bantamweight titleholder T.J. Dillashaw, but only for $2 million, Johnson told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.
“Mighty Mouse” said he ran into Dillashaw in Las Vegas over the weekend during UFC 183 fight week and told him the plot.
“I was like, ‘Hey, I told everybody that I’ll fight you,'” Johnson said. “He was like, ‘You did?’ I said, ‘Yes and I told everybody we gotta get paid. I said $2 million.’ He goes, ‘Eff, yeah. I’m down with that.'”
Johnson (21-2-1) conceded that it wouldn’t take quite that much. But close.
“I guess not,” he said. “Maybe one million if Dana wants to come out with that.”
The superfight question has come up recently simply because there is a scarcity of contenders in the flyweight division. John Lineker would have made plenty of sense as the next challenger, especially after he beat Ian McCall on Saturday night at UFC 183. But Lineker failed to make weight for the fourth time in eight UFC fights. UFC president Dana White will force him to go up to bantamweight.
“It does suck for the flyweight division,” Johnson said. “That was the No. 1 contender. He’s been on a hot streak, destroying his opponents. Not just squeaking by. It would have made for a great fight for me and the fans.”
There aren’t too many options after him that fit. Johnson said he’d be OK with a fight with Kyoji Horiguchi, the top Japanese prospect who has won four straight in the UFC and is coming off a unanimous decision win over Louis Gaudinot at UFC 182.
“Obviously Horiguchi, he’s been whooping people’s butts in the flyweight division,” Johnson said. “He’s on a hot little win streak. I wouldn’t mind.”
Then there’s John Dodson, who gave Johnson a pretty tough challenge in January 2013. While Dodson deserves another crack with two impressive finishes since that fight, there’s a question of when he could be ready. The Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA product tore his ACL last July and that’s usually a year recovery for an MMA fighter.
Johnson calls into question Dodson’s resume, too. Regarding Dodson’s finish of Darrell Montague, Johnson said, “I haven’t even heard of him.” But for the most part, the champion wouldn’t care if that was what the UFC decided.
“If they want Dodson to fight me, that’s the fight they want, whatever,” Johnson said.
That could mean Johnson would have to wait until the summer, but he has designs on competing at UFC 187 on Memorial Day Weekend in Las Vegas. The rumored main event for that card is Jon Jones vs. Anthony Johnson for the UFC light heavyweight title, so it’s no surprise Johnson would want that co-headlining spot.
“I don’t mind sliding a little ‘Mouse’ in there and letting him display his skillset,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter who it is.”
Well, it almost certainly will not be Dillashaw, who meets Renan Barao in the main event of UFC 186 on April 25 in Montreal. If it comes to leaving the division for a fight or hanging out a little longer waiting for an opponent, Johnson would choose the latter.
“I’m sticking around at 125,” he said. “If I want to get my sweat on and my juices going, I can get it [in the gym]. Let’s just spar hard. Let’s just make it happen.”
Unless of course Uncle Dana antes up with six figures.