Demetrious Johnson explains why he never fought TJ Dillashaw
UFC legend Demetrious Johnson has explained why he never wound up fighting TJ Dillashaw in a massive dream fight.
As we know, Demetrious Johnson is the greatest flyweight in the history of the UFC – and probably mixed martial arts as a whole. He had a truly epic run with the world title, before eventually going to ONE Championship after dropping the belt in a controversial decision loss to Henry Cejudo.
Demetrious Johnson was never quite the superstar that we all believed he should be, and a lot of people felt like the promotion dropped the ball when it came to actually pushing him as such. That’s happened many times in the past, but despite that, his legacy as one of the best to ever do it is still firmly intact in the eyes of the masses.
In a recent chat with TJ Dillashaw, Demetrious Johnson gave his side of the story regarding why the bout, which was heavily rumored, never came to fruition.
Demetrious Johnson on TJ Dillashaw fight
“So we were supposed to fight, right? You remember that? I’ll never forget. They called me and said, we want you to fight TJ Dillashaw, I was like, pay me a million dollars. Actually, the first time they introduced that to me was when I was about to fight Kyoji Horiguchi. We just did the big press conference.
“I remember I was coming out of it, and Dana White was walking this way, and I was like, I’m looking for that superfight. He goes, so why don’t you fight TJ Dillashaw? I’m like, so pay me a motherf***ing million dollars. He was like, I can’t pay what you don’t bring in.”
Once upon a time this was a legitimate dream fight, and while it seemed like both wanted it to happen, it appears as if finances got in the way – which is becoming something of a recurring theme in the Ultimate Fighting Championship these days.
Thankfully, the flyweight division seems to be as strong as it has been in a long time right now with Joshua Van currently leading the charge.
