Demetrious Johnson has cleared the air on where he stands regarding the T.J. Dillashaw superfight. On Tuesday’s UFC 227 Media Conference Call, Johnson was asked about why the fight with Dillashaw never happened, as a common assumption by many in the MMA community is that negotiations fell apart on Johnson’s side. Johnson, however, claims that he did accept the fight prior to getting injured, and was then never offered the fight again:
“So the fight wasn’t offered to me after I got injured,” Johnson said. “When they offered it to me, I accepted it, then I got injured and I got surgery. When it came time to fight again, from my understanding from my management’s standpoint is T.J. got an offer to fight Cody with a brand new deal. So god bless him for taking the new deal to fight Cody. Leading up to this fight, or even in July, I was never offered to fight T.J. Dillashaw. “Before I got injured I was going to be fighting him, but then they moved on and went to Cody and T.J.”
This jives with T.J. Dillashaw’s claim earlier this month that the UFC informed him that Demetrious Johnson did accept to fight him earlier this year. When asked if he is still interested in facing Dillashaw, Johnson has remained consistent: pay me superfight money or you can expect more of the status quo:
“Yeah if the money’s right.” Johnson answered. “I’ve always been up front about these super fights. Everybody keeps talking about these super fights. If the money’s not there, if the competition’s not there, then I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. Obviously, that’s up to my management to make that happen. My management knows what I want, the UFC knows what I want. So for me, I show up to fight the No. 1 contender in the flyweight division. I’ll continue to do that until something comes to my table that looks appetizing.”
If Dillashaw and Johnson both emerge victorious Saturday night, it is difficult to imagine the bout not taking place and the UFC not doing whatever it takes to guarantee that.
Do you think we will ever see Demetrious Johnson vs. T.J. Dillashaw in the UFC?
