DJ: I am the #1 P4P fighter in the world

The UFC publishes an entirely theoretical, ill-defined but endlessly debated top pound for pound list. Through Friday at least, it looks like this:
1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Conor McGregor
3. Dominick Cruz
4. Daniel Cormier
5. Jose Aldo
6. Stipe Miocic
7. Joanna Jedrzejczyk
8. Tyron Woodley
9. Michael Bisping
10. Max Holloway

During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Mighty Mouse agreed.

You know what, I believe so — I think I am, said Johnson, as transcribed by Chuck Mindenhall for MMA Fighting. I think going out there and showing everything in my last fight. I showed I had a good clinch. TKO’d Henry Cejudo — Joseph Benavidez just went three rounds with him even though it was an improved Henry Cejudo. But, those guys never really took the fight to different place. Those guys didn’t really fight in the clinch, or use the wrestling aspect, or the grappling.

I went out there against a very gritty opponent, Tim Elliott, and a lot of people don’t give the guy credit. You can’t [judge that] until you get in there and fight him. It’s totally different.

A lot of people might sit back and watch Dominick Cruz doing his footwork, and say, ‘oh, Dominick Cruz just dancing around and he runs away.’ It’s a totally different atmosphere until you get in there, and you actually experience it. But I was able to make adjustments, to get out of some tight situations, persevere through adversity and overcome essentially the bigger flyweight, or the taller guy. So yeah, I believe I am the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.

Johnson’s last loss was to Dominick Cruz at UFC on Versus 6, on October 1, 2011, for the UFC bantamweight championship. At the time there was no flyweight division. However, Johnson argues that both size and time matter.

I think because that happened, what, five years ago? said Johnson. You know, I don’t know, but I think for me when you see the overall pound-for-pound … if I was the same size as Cruz, or the same size as Jones, weight-wise, everything is identically the same, I would think that I would be able to beat them, showing what I’ve been able to do in the Octagon.

I’ve knocked people out from the clinch. I’ve submitted people from armbars, Kimura, last-second armbars. I’ve knocked people out with one-hand punch.

It’s barbershop talk – when a black man is giving a brother a fade, saying, ‘yo, you know what dawg? That Demetrious Johnson, he pretty good, dawg. He 5-3 though,’ and the other guy goes, ‘yeah, he short but if he’s the same size as that motherf***er he’d kick his ass, I guarantee it.’ That’s where I think it’s like barbershop talk.

Johnson, 30, will tie Anderson Silva’s record of ten title defenses if he wins his next fight. At that point the G.O.A.T. discussion begins.