For all his subtle goofing and joking during downtime and even on the scales during weigh-ins, flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson seems about as myopically focused as an elite athlete could hope to be just before a competition. Saturday Johnson will defend his UFC belt against top contender Ray Borg in Las Vegas.
If he does so, successfully, “Mighty Mouse” will have defended a UFC title more consecutive times than anyone in history and lay deeper claim to being simply the best MMA fighter to have ever done it. Right now, Johnson is tied with former middleweight king Anderson Silva with 10 consecutive title defenses.
The historic opportunity must add to Johnson’s focus right now. He certainly didn’t seem very concerned with anything else earlier this week when we spoke to him.
Just days removed from the terrorist shooting attack that killed or injured hundreds of Vegas concertgoers, Johnson said he has kept the violent tragedy from weighing heavily on his mind.
“No, it hasn’t. I don’t live here. It’s very unfortunate what happened and my condolence goes out to all the families,” the Washington State resident said, plainly.
“I’m out here to do a job, I’m focused and ready to go out there and defend the belt.”
Johnson has become so dominant that perhaps most of the sporting world expects him to beat Borg at UFC 216 Saturday just as he has beaten so many opponents before. As a testament to Johnson’s fighting greatness, many of the questions he’s received in the lead-in to facing Borg have actually been about other challenges – namely moving back up in weight and fighting other champions, like Cody Garbrandt.
Johnson admits to having spoken with his promoter explicitly about moving back up to other weight classes like bantamweight, where he once fought for another world title before dropping to flyweight. Still, the reigning champ insists that he needs to first take care of Borg, and then the UFC will need to take care of his money, if he’s to start fighting much bigger opponents again.
“Yeah, absolutely. We talked to the UFC about that. But right now we’re just focused on breaking this record and then once we do that we’ll sit down with the UFC again and let them know where I want to be,” he explained.
“If they give me the numbers I want for a super fight and they want to entertain that, then I’ll make sure I’m ready for that.”
That could include fighting current bantamweight champ Garbrandt. Johnson made clear that he isn’t gunning for him or any other specific opponent. Whoever the other champs are, Johnson is interested, so long as the UFC offers him money worth the risk.
“If he was the champion then we’ll make it happen. I talked to Cody Garbrandt and everything’s good. He was like, ‘I’m focused on TJ and I don’t know why [Garbrandt coach] Justin [Bucholz] said [Garbrandt planned on fighting Johnson after his next bantamweight fight against TJ Dillashaw]. I’m focused on TJ, then after that I’ll see what’s next,’” Johnson recounted.
If we’re dissatisfied with Johnson’s speculation lacking color or bombast, it’s important to remember that champions stay champions in large part due to their ability to focus like lasers on the task at hand. Day by day, fight by fight, title-defense after title-defense, Johnson has been able to deliver and stay on top.
So, we shouldn’t expect lots in the way of predictions from him or much-expressed excitement from “DJ” on anything other than fighting Ray Borg. Fortunately, a Johnson focused on beating Ray Borg will probably mean we’ll get to see another great flyweight title fight at UFC 216.
About the author:
Elias Cepeda is a host of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Rounds Podcast, a staff writer at FloCombat, and has a weekly column for The UG Blog.
