What happens in the Ultimate Fighting Championship is no longer of any concern to new ONE Championship athlete Demetrious Johnson, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have an opinion. And one of those opinions include the future matchmaking for the man who lobbied to face Johnson when he was still a member of the UFC roster, T.J. Dillashaw.
Instead of getting the superfight he lobbied for for several months, a champion vs. champion fight against Demetrious Johnson, T.J. Dillashaw would still get a champion vs. champion bout against the 125-pound champion, only it wasn’t Demetrious Johnson who awaited him, but newly crowned flyweight champion Henry Cejudo. Cejudo would then successfully defend his flyweight title against Dillashaw via 1st-round KO at UFC on ESPN+ 1. After the loss, Dillashaw went right back on the campaign trail in requesting a rematch against Cejudo, but Demetrious Johnson believes the UFC should go in another direction.
“In my personal opinion, if I were to say what would be the best thing to happen, if T.J. went off and defended the belt against Marlon Moraes, who’s the number-one contender in my personal opinion, and then Henry Cejudo can go defend his belt,” Johnson told Helen Yee Sports.
Demetrious Johnson believes the superfight era has taken on a life of its own and that when it comes to champion vs. champion bouts, they should only happen after certain obligations have already been fulfilled:
“Because a lot of these champ-champ and double champ and all that stuff, it kind of holds the division. When I’m sitting by watching it, I’m ready to see Marlon Moraes get his chance.
“I think when there’s absolutely nobody for those two to compete against, that’s when you do superfights.”
Do you agree with Demetrious Johnson? Should superfights only happen after both champions have cleaned out their divisions?
