The Official UFC 215 Poster Has Been Released

The official UFC 215 artwork has now been revealed ahead of the event which is set for Sep. 9 in Edmonton, Alberta The card is set to be headlined by one of Dana White’s more recent entries into his bad books, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who will square off against Ray Borg. The co-headliner also […]

The official UFC 215 artwork has now been revealed ahead of the event which is set for Sep. 9 in Edmonton, Alberta The card is set to be headlined by one of Dana White’s more recent entries into his bad books, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who will square off against Ray Borg. The co-headliner also […]

UFC Rankings Update: Jon Jones Overtakes Mighty Mouse In Top P4P Spot

Jon ‘Bones’ is back in the top pound-for-pound spot on the official UFC rankings. Following his third-round knockout of archrival Daniel Cormier to win back the title in the main event of last weekend’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) UFC 214 from Anaheim, Calif., “Bones” has surpassed dominant flyweight champion Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson at the top […]

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Jon ‘Bones’ is back in the top pound-for-pound spot on the official UFC rankings.

Following his third-round knockout of archrival Daniel Cormier to win back the title in the main event of last weekend’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) UFC 214 from Anaheim, Calif., “Bones” has surpassed dominant flyweight champion Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson at the top of the P4P rankings, retaking the spot he ruled for years as the dominant light heavyweight champion.

A head-scratching series of out-of-the-cage problems with drugs were the only thing that could stand in Jones’ way, but unfortunately, they did in a big way, limiting him to just one win in more than two years since his first victory over Cormier at January 2015’s UFC 182.

In his stead, Johnson had racked up title defense after title defense, tying legendary former middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s record for most consecutive defenses with 10. Jones certainly could have tied and/or broken that record if he had been able to stay out of trouble, but nonetheless, his overtaking of ‘Mighty Mouse’s’ top spot is sure to be the cause of several heated discussions among fight fans.

In other rankings movement, Robbie Lawler moved up two spots following his hard-fought unanimous decision win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 214, moving from 3 to a tie with Stephen Thompson at the No. 1 spot after recent title contender Demian Maia moved down two spots to No 3 after his heavily criticized loss to Tyron Woodley in the UFC 214 co-main. Cerrone moved down one spot to No. 7 for the close loss.

Here are the fully updated rankings courtesy of UFC.com:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Jon Jones +4
2 Demetrious Johnson -1
3 Conor McGregor -1
4 Stipe Miocic
5 Max Holloway -1
6 Cody Garbrandt -1
7 Daniel Cormier -4
8 Joanna Jedrzejczyk
9 Tyron Woodley
10 Dominick Cruz
11 Michael Bisping
12 Jose Aldo
13 Cris Cyborg *NR
14 Amanda Nunes -1
15 Robert Whittaker -1

FLYWEIGHT
Champion : Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Wilson Reis
5 Jussier Formiga
6 Sergio Pettis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Tim Elliott
10 John Moraga
11 Ian McCall
12 Dustin Ortiz
13 Alexandre Pantoja
14 Louis Smolka
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Cody Garbrandt
1 Dominick Cruz
2 TJ Dillashaw
3 Jimmie Rivera +1
3 Raphael Assuncao
5 John Lineker
6 Bryan Caraway
7 Aljamain Sterling +1
8 John Dodson -1
9 Thomas Almeida
9 Marlon Moraes +1
11 Eddie Wineland
12 Pedro Munhoz
13 Rob Font
14 Matthew Lopez
15 Johnny Eduardo

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion : Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Brian Ortega +2
7 Yair Rodriguez -1
8 Jeremy Stephens -1
9 Darren Elkins +1
10 Renato Moicano -1
11 Dennis Bermudez
12 Dooho Choi
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Myles Jury *NR
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion : Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje
6 Nate Diaz
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Evan Dunham
15 Gilbert Melendez

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion : Tyron Woodley
1 Stephen Thompson +1
1 Robbie Lawler +2
3 Demian Maia -2
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Carlos Condit
6 Neil Magny
7 Donald Cerrone +1
8 Colby Covington
9 Santiago Ponzinibbio
10 Rafael Dos Anjos
11 Gunnar Nelson
12 Dong Hyun Kim
13 Kamaru Usman
14 Alex Oliveira
15 Tarec Saffiedine

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion : Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman
6 Anderson Silva
7 Derek Brunson
8 Kelvin Gastelum
9 David Branch
10 Krzysztof Jotko
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Thales Leites
13 Tim Boetsch
14 Uriah Hall
15 Thiago Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Jon Jones
1 Daniel Cormier -1
2 Alexander Gustafsson
3 Volkan Oezdemir +2
4 Glover Teixeira
5 Jimi Manuwa -2
6 Mauricio Rua
7 Ovince Saint Preux
8 Corey Anderson -1
9 Misha Cirkunov
10 Ilir Latifi
11 Rogerio Nogueira
12 Patrick Cummins
13 Tyson Pedro
14 Gian Villante
15 Gadzhimurad Antigulov

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion : Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Junior Dos Santos
5 Francis Ngannou
6 Mark Hunt
7 Derrick Lewis
8 Alexander Volkov
9 Stefan Struve
10 Marcin Tybura
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Andrei Arlovski
13 Junior Albini +1
14 Travis Browne -1
15 Curtis Blaydes

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion : Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Jessica Andrade
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Carla Esparza
8 Cynthia Calvillo
9 Randa Markos
10 Joanne Calderwood
11 Felice Herrig
12 Paige VanZant
13 Cortney Casey
14 Maryna Moroz
15 Jessica Aguilar

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion : Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Ronda Rousey
5 Raquel Pennington
6 Sara McMann
7 Cat Zingano
8 Germaine de Randamie
9 Liz Carmouche
10 Alexis Davis
11 Marion Reneau
12 Ketlen Vieira
12 Katlyn Chookagian +2
14 Bethe Correia -1
15 Leslie Smith

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Dana White Slams DJ: Conor McGregor Is Number One, Not You

Although the first five months of 2017 have been some of the slowest in the history of the UFC, one story that currently sticks out right now is the ongoing feud between UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and UFC President Dana White. Johnson released a lengthy statement detailing how he had allegedly been treated during […]

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Although the first five months of 2017 have been some of the slowest in the history of the UFC, one story that currently sticks out right now is the ongoing feud between UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and UFC President Dana White.

Johnson released a lengthy statement detailing how he had allegedly been treated during a recent run of negotiations with the company, describing a scene where he was first demanded to face rising flyweight contender Ray Borg, and then former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw when “The Viper’s” rival, current 135-pound champion Cody Garbrandt, pulled out of their match-up at July’s UFC 213 with a back injury.

“Mighty Mouse,” who tied Anderson Silva’s record of 10 consecutive title defenses with a dominant submission of Wilson Reis at UFC on FOX 24 in April, detailed how UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard leveled threats at him that supposedly included the outright canning of flyweight and telling him he would never earn pay-per-view revenue for his fights.

The whole scene, regardless of who was right or not, was an incredibly bad look for the UFC in an era where fighters are growing increasingly discontented with their pay and treatment from new owners WME-IMG as they continue to speak out against the promotion in droves. The company is under rapidly growing fire for how they bully fighters, a strategy that may have worked during the Fertitta era but has been increasingly less effective once it became known the company was sold for $4.2 billion last summer.

But not surprisingly, White refuted Johnson’s claims in an interview with TMZ (via MMA Fighting), stating (predictably) that “Mighty Mouse’s” words were untrue and that the champion doesn’t receive PPV points because he did not want to:

“My guy Mick, who is one of our guys who has been handling that, he said most of what [Johnson] said was not true, number one. Number two, the bottom line is Demetrious Johnson is in line right now — first of all, when he did his deal, he didn’t want pay-per-view (points). He didn’t want pay-per-view. He wanted up front money, no pay-per-view. He wasn’t very confident in his abilities to sell pay-per-views. He has the lowest selling pay-per-view in the history of the UFC in the modern era, so, number one. Number two, I think that a fight between him and T.J. Dillashaw would be something that people would actually be interested in, and could sell pay-per-views and could make money, but he absolutely refuses to fight the guy. It’s ridiculous.”

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY

Johnson also cited a lack of promotion of him and flyweight overall as a reason why he hadn’t become a star for the UFC, something White again shot down by citing the recent season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) that was solely focused on the division:

“We’re not marketing him right? We built a TV show around him. The Ultimate Fighter (24) was about what an incredible fighter he is. We’ve put him on FOX many times and tried to build him, and it is what it is. It’s not me. I’m bullying you? How do you bully the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world?”

So White claims to not be bullying “Mighty Mouse,” yet he blasted the dominant champion’s accomplishments by saying he was not the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, a notion he believes the media created, despite his 10 consecutive title defenses. That honor, he insisted, goes to UFC golden boy Conor McGregor, who has won two belts but has zero title defenses:

“Listen, the media claims he’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world,” White said. “I think Conor McGregor is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. If you look at what that really means, what pound-for-pound means, and Conor doesn’t give a sh*t, he’ll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime. And if Demetrious is the pound-for-pound best guy in the world, then fight T.J. Dillashaw. Fight somebody that people will actually care about and be interested in, and there you go.”

White also insisted that the UFC was not planning to can the flyweight division as a threat to Johnson not accepting the fight with Dillashaw because they had been considering doing just that for a long time:

“That’s not true. We’ve been talking about shutting down the flyweight division for about three years,” White said, laughing. “I think that’s what he was saying, because he knows that. He knows that we’ve talked about, you know, doing away with that division. It has nothing to do with Demetrious.

“And never once did I threaten him to shut down the division. Did he say that? Yeah, that’s not true. That’s not what happened. I told him that we had been talking about shutting down the division for years. He knows that.”

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Demetrious Johnson Reveals UFC’s Jaw-Dropping Threats

Demetrious Johnson is in a bad way with the UFC at the moment. “Mighty Mouse” comes off of his record-tying 10th consecutive UFC title defense when he submitted Wilson Reis in the third round of their meeting this past April. Johnson is now looking to break former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s title defense record […]

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Demetrious Johnson is in a bad way with the UFC at the moment.

“Mighty Mouse” comes off of his record-tying 10th consecutive UFC title defense when he submitted Wilson Reis in the third round of their meeting this past April. Johnson is now looking to break former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s title defense record with one more successful flyweight title defense, and the UFC would like for that fight to be against former bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw.

Johnson didn’t seem to be too interested in the bout upon its announcement, however, as his management was in the midst of negotiations to fight No. 3-ranked Ray Borg. “Mighty Mouse” revealed that UFC President Dana White and he conversed over the issue at last month’s fighter retreat in Las Vegas.

The flyweight champ said that White told him the UFC wants to make the fight and that Dillashaw really wants it as well. White also asked Johnson why he would deny Dillashaw the opportunity, and “Mighty Mouse” was surprised that White asked to put Dillashaw above himself (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“F*ck that,” Johnson said. “This isn’t TJ Dillashaw’s career. This is my career. This is how it’s going to f*cking happen.”

Johnson’s team has been going back-and-forth with UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard, who stated that the UFC would consider shutting the flyweight division down if “Mighty Mouse” didn’t comply to fighting Dillashaw:

“I said close the mother f*cking division then,” Johnson said. “Because if somebody is willing to do that, that just shows you that they have no interest whatsoever of working with the champion. I never missed weight, always showed up on time, did all of my interviews on fight week, traveled to Australia in coach two times for the flyweight division. I’ve done a lot.”

Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

If the fight were to go down, Johnson fears that Dillashaw will miss weight, thus scrapping the stipulation that the title would be on the line. Johnson said his team asked the UFC to guarantee him his full fight purse, as well as Dillashaw’s, and that the fight would be called off if that were to be the case:

“What is this?” Johnson asked. “Is this f*cking amateur hour? This is the sh*t you do at smokers and amateur shows. … This is supposed to be the pinnacle of mixed martial arts and this is what we’re negotiating?”

“I respect the UFC saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna close your f*cking division, take T.J. to fight,’” Johnson said. “Sounds good. Here’s my stance: Go ahead and f*cking close it. Like I respect them being honest and straightforward with it. But don’t expect me to be, ‘OK, I’ll take the TJ fight if you’re gonna close my division.’ No, no, no, no. That’s not how it works. What have I been doing the last five years in this division? Trying to make it the best division in the world.”

As for the UFC’s threat to close down the 125-pound division if he refuses to fight, “Mighty Mouse” said he believes the promotions is willing to do it and has no reason not to believe them:

“I had to believe him,” Johnson said. “I was standing my ground. I’m a black-and-white type of dude. If you say something, I believe you’re gonna do it. When he told me that, I was like, ‘Alright, if that’s how you guys want to treat me and say that and close my division after I’ve been playing ball the whole time and defending my title, go ahead.’ They showed they had no interest in having that division.”

Johnson concluded by saying he doesn’t know how the UFC will take his comments, but stressed that he has no beef with Dillashaw in particular and would be saying the same things if it were any other bantamweight in his position:

“I have no idea,” Johnson said. “I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen: I’m not fighting another bantamweight. I’ll tell you that.”

Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY

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Five Reasons Demetrious Johnson Still Isn’t The GOAT

Last night (Sat. April 15, 2017) at UFC on FOX 24 from Kansas City, Missouri, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson furthered his case for being the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, when he defeated Wilson Reis via third-round submission to defend his 125-pound title for a record tenth consecutive time. ‘Mighty Mouse’ tied

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Last night (Sat. April 15, 2017) at UFC on FOX 24 from Kansas City, Missouri, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson furthered his case for being the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, when he defeated Wilson Reis via third-round submission to defend his 125-pound title for a record tenth consecutive time.

‘Mighty Mouse’ tied the record held by former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Although Johnson has looked dominant for the past few years as the undisputed champion at 125 pounds, there are still a few clear reasons why we still can’t consider him the greatest of all time (GOAT) quite yet.

Here are LowKickMMA’s top five reasons that Johnson still is not the greatest MMA fighter of all-time.

Mandatory Credit: Tracy Lee-USA TODAY Sports

5. Level Of Competition

Racking up 10 consecutive title defenses in no easy task; however, Johnson’s level of competition isn’t exactly up to par with those that he battles with for the moniker of greatest of all time.

Many of the names in the flyweight champ’s list of victims don’t necessarily stick out to anyone; such as John Moraga, Ali Bagautinov, Chris Cariaso, a young Kyoji Horiguchi, Tim Elliott, and Wilson Reis. Moraga is currently on a three-fight losing streak and is now ranked outside of the top ten.

Bagautinov has lost three of his last four Octagon appearances and is no longer with the UFC. He has not participated in MMA competition since November of 2016 when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to Kyoji Horiguchi.

Cariaso always had a very up-and-down career at 125 pounds, and lost two more back-to-back fights following his loss to Johnson before calling it a career in October of 2015. Kyoji Horiguchi was handed a shot at Johnson’s throne after three Octagon wins against lackluster competition, not to mention ‘The Supernova’ was extremely young when he took on ‘Mighty Mouse.’

Horiguchi has since decided not to renew his contract with the promotion and instead does his work for RIZIN nowadays. Elliott suffered a three-fight losing streak before being cut by the UFC in 2015. He went on to lighter competition under the Titan FC banner and returned to an unsuccessful title challenge against Johnson.

And last but not least we have Reis, who Johnson made easy work of yesterday, whose only notable win heading into his title bout on a three-fight win streak was against No. 8-ranked Dustin Ortiz.

This level of competition is just not quite up to the caliber for a fighter that should be considered the GOAT.

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Dana White Reveals If He Thinks Demetrious Johnson Is The GOAT

Demetrious Johnson just made a case for being the greatest mixed martial artist (MMA) of all time. Earlier tonight (Sat. April 15, 2017) ‘Mighty Mouse’ made a record 10th consecutive flyweight title defense, tying former middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s UFC record, when he took home a third round submission win over Wilson Reis in the

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Demetrious Johnson just made a case for being the greatest mixed martial artist (MMA) of all time.

Earlier tonight (Sat. April 15, 2017) ‘Mighty Mouse’ made a record 10th consecutive flyweight title defense, tying former middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s UFC record, when he took home a third round submission win over Wilson Reis in the main event of UFC on FOX 23. Johnson is now on a 12-fight win streak with half of those victories coming via finish.

UFC President Dana White spoke about Johnson’s performance at the post-fight press conference today, and had nothing but praise for his 125-pound champ’s performance inside the Octagon in Kansas City:

“What’s crazy is, he does what he does here tonight, right?” White said at the UFC on FOX 24 post-fight press conference. “And I’m doing an interview with Brazil and I start to walk away and I hear him (Demetrious) ask his coach ‘What did I do wrong?’ I stop and said ‘Hey, Coach, let me answer this for you. Nothing.’ First of all he looked incredible on his feet. The punch stat numbers are ridiculous, right? Then he goes to the ground and is absolutely dominating and goes for the most dangerous move you can try and pull off, an armbar.

“Not only pulling off an armbar when you’re dominating like that, but against a Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion,” White said. “The guys’s an absolute freak of nature – Joe Rogan was blowing me up saying ‘This guy is a wizard, he’s the greatest ever,’ Rogan’s going – you know Rogan is a jiu-jitsu nut so he’s going crazy. So well deserved.”

Johnson hasn’t surpassed Silva’s title defense record quite yet, as one more victory will but the sole flyweight champ in promotion history over the top. White will hold off on calling ‘Mighty Mouse’ the greatest of all time out of respect to ‘The Spider’, but admits it’s hard to deny the 125-pound kingpin the moniker given his dominance in the last five years:

“Listen he’s got one more fight, and he breaks Anderson Silva’s record, and he continues – Listen he’s already the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, and he strives to be better each time, and he gets better each time,” White said. “Literally destroying people. This kid could be considered the G.O.A.T right now, or to give Anderson Silva the true respect you wait until he actually breaks the record. It’s hard to not call this guy the greatest of all time.”

Photo Credit: Ron Chenoy for USA TODAY Sports

After having essentially cleaned out the top contenders at 125 pounds Johnson finds himself in a bit of a predicament as it pertains to who will get the honor to challenge him for what could be a record-setting 11th consecutive title defense. White told MMA fans not to worry, however, as they’ll find a suitable opponent to challenge for Johnson’s throne next:

“Anderson Silva had that problem too,” said White. “When you run through guys as long as these two have run through guys – yeah. But I promise you we’ll find somebody.”

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