DJ: I’ll superfight TJ, for $2,000,000

UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson recently appeared on Submission Radio for a wide-ranging interview. ‘Mighty Mouse’ may be the best pound for pound fighter in mixed martial arts, but he has not caught on with the fans at a level commensurate with his skill.

UFC Vice President of Public Relations Dave Sholler had some suggestions.

Basically me and Dave Sholler sat down and he’s was like ‘Look bro, each time I hear you do interviews you stop and edit yourself. Like, I know who you are as a person and I just felt you’ve hidden yourself.’ So when he told me that, then I was like

‘Okay, well I’ll just start talking like the way I usually do when I am at home in front of everybody.’ And so with that being said, it wasn’t like a negative conversation we had back and forth, or him just trying… he’s basically just trying to help guide me, and that’s basically what most of the guys who work in the UFC PR office do. I mean I’ve been knowing Dave Sholler since WEC days and I’ve come a long way in my career, and now he’s just trying to help me, you know, blossom into a beautiful flower I guess you can say.

On if Demetrious felt restricted to speak his mind at any point.

I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to say that I was ever scared to voice my opinion, I just wanted to make a good example, I guess you could say. And I believe even when I’m being more outspoken about things, I still believe I am making a good example for younger athletes and also future athletes. But as for me, like I said, I think it was just Dave Sholler trying to help me just grow up and be more confident when I speak, when I do my interviews.

On how training is going for his title defense at UFC 191.

 Training is going good, everything is on track for September 5th. We’re feeling good, and I mean, if we had to fight tomorrow I’d be able to make the weight and go out there and preform very well. Now we just have three weeks left, so now it’s about fine tuning everything, make sure I stay healthy and go out there and executing. That’s it.

On what keeps Demetrious Johnson super busy.

Oh man, I’ll tell you what. One. It’s kids and life itself and training. Typically the days, I wake up in the morning, head to the gym around 10 o’clock and I start my strength and conditioning at 11 o’clock, and then I usually get done about 1:30, and then I go out and eat lunch at the same place ‘Teriyaki Madness’. And after that I go back to the gym and just relax. I lay down and play video games just because I’m trying to kill time between training sessions, and then next session starts at 5 o’clock. We’ll go in there and hit pads and watch all the videos and drill some technique, and then drive on home and have dinner with the family and take care of your kids, put them to bed, go to bed and wake up do it all over again. So just a normal day in the life of Demetrious Johnson.

With Johnson winning more dominantly in all of his rematches, if he’s looking to have a more dominant performance over Dodson from their last fight.

That’s the goal. I mean we’re training extremely hard. When I’m hitting pads, when I’m sparring I’m pushing myself. I’m not doing it nice and relaxed and calm and being comfortable. A lot of people get a little misunderstood about what it’s called to have good cardio, and good cardio is when you’re able to push the distance, push the rounds, push the fights. And I’ve shown that in all my previous fights where when I go out there, even though I’m the champion, you know like GSP said, you have to go out there and take the belt. I don’t give my opponents a chance to take the belt. I go out there and I take it. I take away their opportunity to take my belt away from me. So that’s what I’m looking to do September 5th.

If Demetrious thinks that a John Dodson with better cardio could give him problems.

That’s where I think a lot of people were blinded and I think he’s blinded as well. If he thought that my cardio was the biggest thing that was his downfall that fight, he should go back and re-watch it.

On due to the success Dodson had at the beginning of their first fight, if DJ thinks Dodson is his toughest fight to date.

Yeah I think it was a tough fight. I don’t wanna say it was the toughest fight to date, you know, it’s a fight, you’re going to get hit, you’re going to get dropped. You just gotta make adjustments and go out there and take it to him. And granted the first fight we had with him it was the very first time I ever fought a southpaw who was fast and explosive – actually Joseph Benavidez was southpaw, but Joseph switches back and forth – but on John Dodson it was the first time I had my first title defense. So with that being said, there’s a lot of stuff I had to get used to. But once I was able to get into the fight, make adjustments, once he got tired and stopped running, then I was able to get my hands on him and basically impose my will on him.

DJ’s response to Dodson saying ‘DJ has been a plague in our division, keeping us from our stardom.’

Nothing at all. Like I said, that’s his opinion, and obviously if I was a plague in the division I wouldn’t have way more Twitter followers than he does, Instagram followers, I wouldn’t have been selected to be in the UFC Flyweight tournament. So I think when he just said that stuff it’s just him just trying to ruffle my feather, and the guys, really it doesn’t bother me one bit.

How likely is it that DJ will move back up to Bantamweight for a TJ Dillashaw Super-fight?

For me, I’m focused on getting the most title defenses in the UFC for men, and right now I’m at six, and I got four more to go to even hit that mark. So I got five more to go just to break that record and that’s my goal right now. Once I beat that and I beat that record and my name’s in there, then I’ll be more opted to move up to bantamweight. Right now I’m just trying to write my name as many times as I can in the history book.

On wanting 2 million dollars from Dana and the UFC for the TJ Dillashaw Super-fight.

Yeah, I mean me and TJ [Dillashaw], we’re cool. Like there’s no animosity between each other at all. Me and him are always hanging out with each other, each time we had a UFC gig together we get along very well with each other. And I told the UFC, I told Dana White that straight up. And then me and him had some laugh back and forth, and last time I was in Vegas I told him, I was like ‘Sooo if I get past this one, what’s gonna happen?’ and he goes ‘I don’t know, maybe do a TJ Dillashaw.’ And I was like ‘Well you guys know my number, so holler at me when you guys wanna make it happen.’

On if DJ would be open for doing it for less than 2 million.

For me, I’m just trying to make… like fighters have a short opportunity to make as much money as possible, and this is going to be the biggest fight of my life. It’s the biggest thing in my career that I’ve ever done, and obviously when I am going up in weight and I’m, you know, I don’t wanna…since I haven’t been defeated since I fought Dominick Cruz. And me going up to fight TJ Dillashaw there’s a, you know, potential chance I could lose that fight. So I’m trying to cash out and make some money on the superfight, because I know the UFC would do very good numbers with it and it will also, I mean it will be a sold out crowd.

Demetrious Johson fights John Dodson at UFC 191 on September 5, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.