Demetrious Johnson was the king of flyweights in the UFC for six years, dominating and outclassing every single one of the contenders available at the time. But now that he’s fighting for ONE Championship in Asia, “Mighty Mouse” has his eyes on one 125-pounder, in particular, that he believes has the best chance of replicating his feat.
“I truly felt that Deiveson Figueiredo was that guy,” Johnson told MMA Fighting ahead of UFC 277. Johnson said that Deiveson Figueiredo is athletic and a good fighter in jiu jitsu. He lacked the proper conditioning. Because he is a large man, he had difficulty losing weight. Brandon Moreno did a great job, he was agile and had good footwork. It was either of these two. Kai Kara-France seems to be doing well. You also have [Alexandre] “Pantoja.” I believe Pantoja is the likely frontrunner .”
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Johnson broke the record for most title defenses in UFC history with 11 straight wins, stopping the likes of Henry Cejudo, Kyoji Horiguchi, Joseph Benavidez and Ray Borg between 2012 and 2018. He admits he expected current UFC flyweight champion Figueiredo to go on a long unbeaten run, but that obviously ended at the hands of Moreno before Figueiredo reclaimed the title with a narrow victory at UFC 270.
Figueiredo is still out due to a hand injury. Moreno, Kara-France and Figueiredo will meet at UFC 277. for the interim title. Johnson understands the UFC’s decision to book an interim title fight, but he disagrees with Pantoja not being included, especially considering the fact that Pantoja is a combined 3-0 over Moreno and Kara-France. Instead, Pantoja will be meeting Alex Perez UFC ‘s main card.
“Even though [Pantoja] doesn’t get a lot of love from fans and the organization,” Johnson said, “I think he should be fighting for the interim title right now because he’s beaten Brandon Moreno and I think he’s beaten Kai Kara-France. Pantoja would be my choice if I could choose one of these guys. I think he’s legit. His stand up is strong, tough, and he has amazing ground.
“If Pantoja becomes world champion, I think I’d have to put — like I said, at the beginning I thought Deiveson Figueiredo would be the guy who would be super dominant and going to beat everybody, but obviously he just lost. Now, if Pantoja becomes the champion, I think that he would be the most dominant. It’s not all about winning fights. At the end of it, it’s more about being healthy and losing weight.
” People don’t realise how difficult that is. Johnson said. “When I did it, it took me six years to get 11 consecutive title defenses, so it’s a long span of time to be consistent and show up and fight a new challenger every single time.”
On the most recent episode of MMA Fighting’s Trocacao Franca, Pantoja said he feels “very honored” to be viewed like that by a UFC legend.
“If I could do half of what this guy has already done, it would be amazing to me,” Pantoja said. I respect him a lot. He’s not only a fighter, but he has the best fight intelligence. A family man who keeps his feet on ground. He’s accomplished everything he can to reach the height he has — man.
“And I agree with him that Deiveson would be a great name, but I think he lost himself along the way. Deiveson was a great guy. But something happened to him along the way. I won’t say that he’s had an easy path to the belt, but he maybe he’s lost his hunger after becoming champion.”
Figueiredo also agreed with Johnson when regarding his own biggest issue being a “hard time making that weight,” but still sees himself as the one to dominate the flyweight division moving forward.
” He’s wrong,” Johnson said about Johnson’s remarks on Trocacao Franca. “If I’m 100-percent focused, rest assured that it won’t be easy for anyone to take the belt away from me in this division. I just want to have my weight under control, because it always goes up after the fight. With that under control, I’ll be 100-percent ready to fight whoever that is and defend what is mine.
“Demetrious has been very light and short. It’s therefore easy for him to create 125.. Because I am larger than him, it’s difficult for me to do 125.. It’s not an easy task .”
. I need to keep my weight down and be lighter.
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