Demetrious Johnson hasn’t at all times gotten the respect he deserves as top-of-the-line UFC champions to ever do it, so it was good to see the MMA world unite on Saturday night time to name for his return in opposition to flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
Pantoja had simply dispatched RIZIN champion Kai Asakura in a spherical and a half (highlights right here), leaving him with few choices on the prime of the 125 pound division. So he referred to as out “Mighty Mouse,” and for a second it seemed like the right means for Johnson to return to the UFC and wrap his profession in opposition to the second finest flyweight champ within the promotion.
The one downside? Johnson retired earlier this yr and isn’t . In any respect. Lower than an hour after Pantoja’s callout, Johnson shot the thought down. Now he’s explaining why in a brand new video on his YouTube channel.
“My black ass ain’t coming again,” he declared. “ what the attractive factor in regards to the place I’m in is? I’ve been provided $2 million to come back and do one combat. One combat, and what do you guys suppose I stated? I stated no. I stated completely no and it wasn’t with the UFC. It wasn’t in opposition to Alex Pantoja.”
“I’m not gonna let you know who it was with,” Johnson continued. “However I acquired provided $2 million a combat, and there comes a cut-off date in an athlete’s profession the place you sit again and also you’re like, why? Why? Why am I combating? Is it to be the perfect on the earth? S—. I used to be the perfect on the earth for six years, not simply in America, but in addition in Japan. And I went up a division. I went 135 as a substitute of 125.”
“Then once I made the choice, I don’t care to combat anymore, I gave myself a full blown yr. A full blown yr to see if I’m gonna miss it. If it’s my identification. And I didn’t miss it.”
Johnson remains to be exhibiting up at grappling tournaments, so the aggressive hearth remains to be energetic inside him. He simply acquired uninterested in what blended martial arts was providing him. And whereas it’s good to think about a state of affairs the place the UFC makes up for years of under-promotion and disrespect to arrange a giant last combat for “Mighty Mouse,” his assured disinterest in even contemplating the thought tells you he doesn’t want something from anybody to validate his profession.
As for Johnson’s opinion of Pantoja’s submission win over Asakura?
“I used to be not shocked one bit,” Demetrious stated. “When you could have a man who’s so rattling harmful in a single space of blended martial arts, that’s the place he must to remain to be able to achieve success. That means that if Kai Asakura went on the bottom with Alex Pantoja, Pantoja is gonna eat his ass up alive, and that’s precisely what Pantoja did.”
