DC says UFC should pay DJ 1 million to fight T.J.

Fighter criticism of the UFC has levels. There is Al Iaquinta ticked off on Twitter. But that’s Twitter. Wednesday saw an altogether different level of faultfinding. It was on FS1’s UFC Tonight, by light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is in a public feud with management over fighting former bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw. Johnson wants Dillashaw to earn the #1 spot by fighting someone else in the division first, and demonstrating that he can make the weight. The UFC wants a PPV it can sell, and argues that the #1 contender isn’t available anyway as DJ already beat him. Same with #2. That makes #3 contender Ray Borg the next one in line for a title shot, but that fight is not PPV worthy. Johnson had wanted #6 contender Sergio Pettis, due to his marketability, but was okay with Borg. Dillashaw not so much.

Cormier has a solution.

UFC, if you want Demetrious Johnson to fight T.J. Dillashaw, give him the money, said Cormier, as transcribed by Dave Doyle for MMA Fighting. Pay him a million dollars and say, ‘That’s your fight.’ I know it’s a lot for a 125-pounder, but the guy’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Pay him the money, and then let him go fight. … Pay him as the No. 1 fighter in the world for once.

I think the responsibility for everything can be shared between Demetrious and the UFC. The UFC really doesn’t understand how to market him, because they have to get creative. He’s smaller. He’s not the biggest guy. He’s dominant. Even when Anderson Silva was the guy running through his division, his points weren’t very high, so they have to get creative. I don’t know if they’ve gotten creative. But I do believe DJ has done his part.

Honestly as an African-American, you have to market people differently. There is a different demographic and I don’t know if DJ really fits neatly into any certain one. Because just his family and everything, everything combined, you gotta get tricky marketing these small guys, especially an African-American guy. So the UFC doesn’t really know how to do that yet with him.

But, you have to have ‘it.’ Ronda Rousey happened organically. It just has to connect. It hasn’t connected for DJ, UFC has to take responsibility because they don’t know how to market him properly yet.

So while Cormier does want the UFC to pay the pound for pound best fighter in the sport accordingly, he also thinks the Dillashaw fight is the best choice.

I think it’s the fight to take, said Cormier. Because not only is it the biggest fight he can have, but it’s also monumental and he’s trying to break that record. If he does it on a former champion in a division ranked even higher? It means even more for Demetrious Johnson.