White: DJ is not the P4P champ
Dana White: “The media claims he’s the pound for pound best fighter in the world. I think Conor McGregor is the pound for pound best fighter in the world.”
UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is at odds with his employers, and detailed why in a long message on his social network, that he followed up with an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour. In sum, he does not feel the company markets or compensates him adequately, considering that many consider him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.
Figures Mighty Mouse owns the P4P crown include UFC president Dana White. Or did.
At the post-fight press conference after his last fight, a submission win over Wilson Reis at UFC on FOX 24 on April 15 that tied the league record for successful title defenses, White was effusive.
“Listen, he’s already the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world,” said White, as transcribed by Lewis Mckeever for BE. “He strives to be better each time, and he gets better each time, literally destroying people.”
White’s estimation is backed up the UFC official pound-for-pound rankings:
1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Conor McGregor
3. Daniel Cormier
4. Stipe Miocic
5. Max Holloway
However, in a recent interview with TMZ, White has apparently reconsidered, despite the fact that nothing has changed – DJ has not fought again, and Conor McGregor is intent solely on boxing Floyd Mayweather.
“The media claims he’s the pound for pound best fighter in the world,” said White. “I think Conor McGregor is the pound for pound best fighter in the world.”
White also took issue with a number of Johnson’s other points.
“He didn’t want Pay-Per-View,” said White. “He wanted upfront money, no Pay-Per-View. He wasn’t very confident in his abilities to sell Pay-Per-Views. He has the lowest-selling Pay-Per-View in the history of the UFC in the modern era.”
“I think a fight between him and T.J. Dillashaw would be something that people would actually be interested in and could sell Pay-Per-Views and could make money. But he absolutely refuses to fight the guy. It’s ridiculous.”
“We’re not marketing him right? We built a TV show around him. ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ was about what an incredible fighter he is. We put him on Fox many times and tried to build him and it is what it is. It’s not me.”
White also said that he was not threatening to shut down the entire flyweight division during negotiations with Johnson.
“That’s not true,” said White. “We’ve been talking about shutting down the flyweight division for about three years. And, never once did I threaten him to shut down the division. I told him that we had been talking about shutting down the division for years. He knows that.”
Johnson offered an olive branch of sorts at one point during the discussion with Helwani.
I love fighting for the UFC,” he said. “It’s an amazing company. I’ve done a lot of great things and they’ve done a lot of great things for my career. But I’m f***ing tired of seeing things about my career on Twitter. A phone call would be nice. Discuss it before you go out there saying all this stuff.
That is sound advice. Despite it’s ubiquity in the league, business negotiation via the social network and TMZ is a little unseemly.