Hume: Demetrious is an example for everyone else, not a $#!^ talker
Matt Hume: “Demetrious Johnson is on a journey to be the greatest martial artist that he can be … What he does is he sets the example for everybody else.”
UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson may well be the best pound for fighter in the sport. In a sport where trash talking can put millions of dollars worth of asses in seats, ‘Mighty Mouse’ is a role model of class and the virtues of martial arts training.
Chuck Mindenhall for MMAfighting interviewed Johnson’s trainer since day one, AMC Kickboxing and Pankration founder Matt Hume. Hume is one of the great martial artists in the sport’s history, and explained that Johnson has far higher goals than trash talking.
“The reality is that stuff doesn’t matter,” Hume said. “He’s creating a legacy to be the great mixed martial artist ever. He’s creating that legacy. And, guys like Joe Rogan — guys like that — are talking about it. Joe Rogan says he’s not the No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter, he’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound guy. I agree with that. It’s just up to us to continually prove that. And we will. If we don’t do that, then we aren’t doing out job.
“All that other criticism are that he’s not selling his fight because he’s not talking s— or something, that’s not who he is. If you want to talk about video games, and that he’ll do one of his moves from a video game or something like that, then we can talk and make it interesting. But if you want him to talk smack about somebody, that’s just not really his personality.”
“Demetrious is on a journey to be the greatest martial artist that he can be. And that doesn’t pertain to any specific opponent. His job is to finish all his opponents, without regard as to who that opponent is or how competitive they are. If somebody else goes on that same journey, they’ll give him a tougher fight. But it’s not going to stop him and his journey.”
“What he does is he sets the example for everybody else. Here’s the example of a guy that came in not saying I want to be a fighter and a champion, but kept his mouth shut and did the work, all while working a 10-hour a day job in a factory, while taking care of family. That happened until I told him, when he was fighting for a title in the UFC, ‘quit your job. It’s now time to quit your job.’ And he was like, ‘are you sure?’
“He is an example of a guy who was patient and waited. He didn’t try to want to be a pro fighter because it sounded cool. He waited until I told him, now it’s time to become a pro fighter. He waited until I told him now it’s time to quit your job and focus on winning this title. So those kinds of things. Having the dedication, the discipline, the loyalty, and having the hunger for education in the martial arts, he’s the example I can point to. And that’s how he helped me.”
So will Johnson be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time?
“That’s the goal I always have for everybody that I train, but it’s up to them to take it that far,” said Hume. “I’m with him every step of his journey, but he could get injured next week crossing the road and be done with that. You never know where it’s going to go. But we’re going to continue to build his techniques and build him into a perfect martial artist as long as he’s able to do it.”
Demetrious Johnson defends his title against Kyoji Horiguchi in the main event of UFC 186 on Saturday.