As we reported yesterday, UFC flyweight champ Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson will look to defend his belt for a record eleventh time when he faces Ray Borg in the UFC 215 main event on Sept. 9 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you recall, UFC president Dana White was not a fan of this fight and tried his best to get “Mighty Mouse” to fight TJ Dillashaw in what would have been the former bantamweight champ’s flyweight debut. Demetrious wasn’t on board with that scenario and the way it was handled and held out to get the fight with Borg instead.
Basically, White tried to force “Mighty Mouse” into the fight with Dillashaw and spoke publicly about it on the UFC Unfiltered podcast saying, “Unfortunately for D.J., you don’t make the fights around here. I do,” as if it was a done deal. Well, it wasn’t a done deal and apparently “Mighty Mouse” can make the fights he wants around there too because now he’s fighting Borg.
So this makes for an interesting exchange when White was questioned by SportsCenter on the UFC 215 main event yesterday. “Yeah, we have Demetrious Johnson vs. Ray Borg for the main event and ‘Mighty Mouse’ will try to break Anderson Silva’s record with 11 consecutive title defenses,” White said.
Asked how everything got smoothed over so this fight with Borg could get made, White stated, “He was dealing with our matchmakers and they got it done.” Then White was asked if his stance on the proposed matchup with Johnson vs. Dillashaw had changed at all. “No, it’s unfortunate,” he said. “I think that would have been a great title fight and I think it would have been a fight a lot of people wanted to see, but it is what it is.”
So that’s it? That’s all the UFC president has to say about the UFC 215 pay-per-view main event? That he thinks that Dillashaw-Johnson would have been a great fight, and oh yeah, Johnson is going to try and break Anderson Silva’s title defense record? … The takeaway from this is that it’s a new era and fighters and their managers do have a say about how their careers are handled and we are witnessing it first hand. Well played, Demetrious Johnson.
https://youtu.be/JvOl0iqUszI