Demetrious Johnson, arguably the finest 125-pound fighter in history, doesn’t think that the UFC’s flyweight division has the sufficient star power to headline a pay-per-view card, even if this isn’t the fault of the fighters themselves.
Speaking after last Saturday night’s UFC 301 event in Rio de Janeiro which was topped by Brazilian champion Alexandre Pantoja’s successful title defence against Australian rival Steve Erceg, Johnson suggested that — while the two combatants’ skills in the cage cannot be denied — the UFC has not done enough to promote them as bona fide pay-per-view attractions.
“Going into this fight, one, I want to start off saying that UFC didn’t even hold a f*cking press conference,” Johnson said on his YouTube channel this week, as noted by MMA Fighting. “Typically they always hold a press conference for pay-per-view events. This one, they didn’t. So, me and my producer were very shocked by that. Just not a whole lot of buzz surrounding this fight card.”
The UFC 301 card arguably suffered from a lack of well-branded talent, especially in the shadow of last month’s star-studded UFC 300 — with the UFC seemingly persuading Jose Aldo out of retirement to fill the vacuum.
“Let’s talk about being a flyweight and now you have pay-per-view points,” Johnson added. “How do you expect a flyweight to make pay-per-view points, because if this card didn’t do over 200,000 buys, he ain’t getting sh*t. He’s going to get his base pay and that’s about it. That’s why it’s a very interesting thing.”
Johnson’s stance seems to mirror his own experiences with the UFC. After compiling a 13-fight win streak at 125-pounds between 2012 and 2017 (with much of those being title bouts), he was ‘traded’ to ONE Championship soon after losing his title to Henry Cejudo, with Ben Askren replacing him on the UFC roster. Askren would go 1-2 with the promotion before his retirement.
Johnson most recently competed almost exactly a year ago where he scored a unanimous decision over Adriano Moraes to take a 2-1 lead in their three-fight series.
