Still rehabbing from shoulder surgery, current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is still eyeing a return to action at UFC 226 on July 7, 2018 against bantamweight kingpin, T.J. Dillashaw.
“That’s the fight I want, that’s the fight UFC believes should go down,” declared Johnson on a recent interview on The MMA Hour. “The biggest thing I have been focusing on is letting Malki and Abe, First Round Management handle that stuff. They are great managers, I told them what I want and they said they’d talk to UFC. Talks with Malki and those guys have sort of gone dormant. They know what’s going on, but last time I talked to them was six weeks ago. We’re shooting for July, so we will go from there,” added the champ.
As for what he wants to be compensated, “Mighty Mouse” wouldn’t go into full detail, but says what he’s requesting to be paid isn’t that crazy for a champion of his caliber.
“You guys see the pay scale, and you can see where I am at. I am not going to go really into that, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable what I am asking for, I believe I deserve it,” he said. “People are going to say this is a true super fight, and when everything is done and said, when you look at the numbers I want them to look at and can say, ‘that was worth it.’
“But it’s now on Malki and UFC. I am going to do what I’m good at, which is to get better and when it comes time to fight I’ll go out there and put on a great show. Maybe I’ll do a new submission out there, something no one’s ever seen.”
As for a rumored rematch against Henry Cejudo, Johnson says there is no truth to that, though he says he won’t be opposed to running it back against the former Olympian he knocked out at UFC 197 if indeed UFC dubs him the legit No. 1 contender at 125-pounds.
As for Johnson’s pay request, if Nate Diaz can get $2 million, then certainly the most dominant champion in the history of the sport can get close to that.
Right?