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Former UFC Flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson has never held back about his feelings toward the promotion where he made his name.
And he’s not about to start now.
The man often referred to affectionately as Mighty Mouse slammed the UFC over its treatment of the Flyweight division following the main event of UFC 301 between Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja and Steve Erceg.
Demetrious Johnson Says UFC 301 Card Was Disrespectful To Flyweight Division
“Not every single fight card — not even in Bellator, PFL, ONE Championship, UFC, you name it — not every single one of them are going to be absolute bangers,” Johnson said on his YouTube channel. “Going into this fight, one, I want to start off saying that UFC didn’t even hold a f-ing press conference. 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 biggest thing going into this: When flyweights headline a UFC pay-per-view, I’m one of ‘em, I headlined multiple UFC pay-per-views, was a champion for six years … It’s very frustrating when I think they have to just let the flyweights be a co-main event. Don’t let us be main event because we don’t drive enough buzz to, obviously, garner a f-ing press conference (laughs).”
Johnson, who defended the Flyweight belt a record 11 consecutive times before losing it to Henry Cejudo, said the company sets up the division for failure.
“Let’s talk about being a flyweight and now you have pay-per-view points,” Johnson said. “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 s—. He’s going to get his base pay and that’s about it. That’s why it’s a very interesting thing.”
Johnson left the UFC for ONE Championship after the loss to Cejudo in a move that saw Ben Askren come in the opposite direction.
He’s spoken at length about how poorly run he believes the UFC is, and it doesn’t appear he’s ready to stop anytime soon.