Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is the UFC flyweight champion, a title he has held since September 22, 2012. He hasn’t lost a fight in nearly six years (when he was still a bantamweight, to former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz on October 1, 2011). His ten straight successful title defenses have tied the UFC record, and he’s one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world.
Sports Illustrated conducted a thorough interview with Johnson about his title reign, his quest to set the record for consecutive title defenses, and what the future holds for him. But the most interesting quotes from Johnson came when he, unprompted, claimed that Ronda Rousey needed to “grow the fuck up” after her reclusive behavior following her two losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.
JW: That’s an interesting way to look at it. If you say it means the world to you, are you setting yourself up for potential disappointment or abject failure?
DJ: Yeah, absolutely. You know, people say, I visualize myself at this point. I visualize myself losing most of the time just because I’ve seen so many champions lose, and they don’t know how to take it. Their whole world is upside down Oh, my God, what am I going to do?
You look at Ronda Rousey. You got your ass beat, grow the f— up. It happens. It’s mixed martial arts. I don’t want to be like that. If I lose, I’ll be like, I lost.
That’s not an inaccurate way of looking at it. Rousey seemingly went into a bunker for a year following the loss to Holm, and ended up not even partaking in the traditional media tour before her loss to Nunes.
Johnson also elaborated on his comments, correctly stating that losing is part of MMA and Rousey’s career and earning potential haven’t disappeared just because of those two losses.
JW: With Ronda, someone should just sit her down and say, “Look, everyone in the sport has tasted defeat.”
DJ: Yeah, everybody has. Everybody f—ing loses. It’s part of the sport. Grow up. Look, Ronda, you lost two f—ing fights in a row, and you made more f—ing money than the women’s roster. You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.
Rousey’s career in the Octagon may be over, but Johnson’s is still ticking along. And while he’ll never be the draw Rousey was (pay-per-view events headlined by Johnson have drawn famously low buyrates, while Rousey-headline events have drawn famously high buyrates), he’s still fighting and has set a potential life span for his career – five more years.
JW: You got 10 more years?
DJ: I got five. If I’m fighting 10 years from now, I didn’t make enough money in the UFC. That’s my philosophy. Five or six more years, I’m ready to move on. I’m already starting to work on my exit plan.
If he doesn’t lose in those five years, Johnson may go down in history as the most dominant MMA fighter of all time.
