It seems like something interesting is going to happen every time Demetrious Johnson is trying to hold on to his MMA title.
Johnson has gained so much dominance that his contenders sometimes have a hard time making moves on how to intimidate him; and his rematch against John Dodson last Saturday was no exception. Dodson was able to scare Johnson off when they met the first time during the UFC Fox 6 event, but “The Magician” wasn’t able to repeat the it at the UFC 191 event.
This resulted to an enormous boos towards the end of the event. Some fans who were present at the venue, which was at MGM Grand Garden Arena, became agitated as the fight slowly became increasingly lopsided. Even though Johnson continues to make himself a name as one of MMA’s pound-for-pound greatest fighters, he still has a tough time getting the acknowledgement that he deserves.
“You have those drunk dummies at the last five rounds, these guys have been here since 5:30 [p.m.] drinking. I don’t know what they expect, but he looked unbelievable tonight. Anybody that knows anything about the sport, Dodson was the guy to fight. This was the fight. Dodson has the power, the speed, he had the experience. He’s been in there with him before. Demetrious Johnson dominated him tonight and absolutely destroyed him,” UFC President White said during a recent interview.
Even though it may seem that this looks like a virtual shutout that is not in favor of Dodson, which also didn’t please the majority at all, Johnson was quite satisfied with what took place during the event. Johnson admitted that he was getting tired of listening to Dodson’s critiques during the bout’s promotion. Johnson also said that he is glad that he can put this particular rivalry behind him.
“I would say so, especially how much he was saying I’m a plague, I’m a boring fighter and all that stuff. For me, I don’t let it get to me emotionally, but each time we would have a staredown, I could feel the emotions coming from him. But that fight’s behind me; it was a great fight. Me and John Dodson went out there, and we had a good fight. I wanted to try and push him and make him work, and now it’s on to the next one. That’s how I look at all my fights,” Johnson said.
Johnson also admitted that he tried to maintain the pressure on Dodson the entire night; he didn’t want to give his contender another chance like what happened more than two years ago. During that first MMA fight, Dodson threw Johnson one time and had him dazed on a few more instances. This time around, Dodson didn’t have any tricks anymore.
“I had more success in the first fight because both of us were going in there not knowing what each other’s strengths were. This time we went in there more cautious; he was more intelligent this time. I was trying to defend more takedowns and he was just trying to push that pace. DJ did a wonderful job of that. He came at me and my hat’s off to him. I can’t sit there and badmouth him because the man’s still the champion and he did something that everyone saw him doing,” Dodson said during a recent interview.
Though there’s no chance that these two contenders will be good friends, Johnson made sure that everything is settled during a post-fight exchange.
“I just walked up and said, ‘Hey congratulations on being a father; it’s the best thing that’s ever going to happen to you in the world.’ I said even though you talk s–t about me I respect you as a man and that was it,” Johnson said.
There’s no schedule for Johnson as of now, but Dana White said that there is something cooking for the flyweight champ.
“There’s always a contender, man, we are working on something right now, and when it happens you’ll agree,” White revealed.