UFC 227 is now available on Amazon Prime.
Demetrious Johnson apparently accepted a champion vs. champion superfight against T.J. Dillashaw earlier this year before an injury derailed those plans.
“Mighty Mouse,” the reigning UFC flyweight champion, revealed during a recent conference call that he didn’t get offered the fight against Dillashaw, the bantamweight king, after he recovered from shoulder surgery.
“I accepted the fight, I got injured, I had surgery, and they never offered it to me after I got injured,” Johnson said. “When they offered it to me I accepted, I got injured and got surgery, and then when it came time to fight again, from my understanding, from my management’s point of view, T.J. got offered to fight Cody [Garbrandt] with a brand new deal, so God bless him for getting a new deal to fight Cody.
“So the entire lead-up to this fight, even in July, I was never offered to fight T.J. Dillashaw. Before I got injured I was up for fighting him, then they moved on and went with Cody and T.J.”
Instead, Johnson will defend his 125-pound belt in a rematch with Henry Cejudo in the UFC 227 co-main event. “Mighty Mouse defeated with Olympic gold medalist via first-round TKO at UFC 197 in April 2016. UFC 227 takes place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and will be headlined by the aforementioned bantamweight championship rematch between Dillashaw and Garbrandt.
UFC President Dana White has attempted to book Johnson vs. Dillashaw on multiple occasions. When Garbrandt was 135-pound champ, he also expressed an interest in facing Johnson. The AMC Pankration standout would be willing to welcome either to 125 pounds as long as the price is right.
“I’ve always been up front about these super fights. Everyone keeps asking me. If the money’s not there and the compensation’s not there, then I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing,” Johnson said. “It’s obviously up to my management to make that happen. My management knows what I want, the UFC knows what I want and for me, I just show up and fight the No. 1 contender in the flyweight division and will continue to do that until something comes to my table that’s appetizing.”
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