Demetrious Johnson is one of the best flyweights there has been in the UFC. Johnson has made his feelings known about UFC 301 and about Flyweights being in the main event.
Demetrious Johnson Was Not Happy With UFC 301
Demetrious Johnson has accomplished a lot and is known as being the best flyweight to have fought in the UFC. Johnson during his time in the UFC was able to to set a record for the most consecutive title defences. Johnson set the record at 11 title defences before departing the UFC for ONE Champion in exchange for Ben Askren. During his time at ONE Championship, he was still able to claim gold as he claimed the Bantamweight title.
Last weekend the UFC was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for UFC 301. Demetrious Johnson’s old flyweight title was on the line. Alexandre Pantoja was looking for his second title defence in his home country when he took on Australia’s Steve Erceg. The fight was a very competitive battle however, Pantoja was able to defend his title when he was able to claim a unanimous decision victory. Demetrius Johnson, however, wasn’t happy with the build-up of UFC 301, or the lack of build-up ahead of the event. Speaking on his YouTube channel Demetrious Johnson said;
“Going into this fight, one, I want to start off saying that UFC didn’t even hold a f*cking press conference. Typically they always hold a press conference for pay-per-view events. This one, they didn’t. So, me and my producer were very shocked by that. Just not a whole lot of buzz surrounding this fight card.”
“The biggest thing going into this: When flyweights headline a UFC pay-per-view, I’m one of ‘em, I headlined multiple UFC pay-per-views, was a champion for six years … It’s very frustrating when I think they have to just let the flyweights be a co-main event. Don’t let us be main event because we don’t drive enough buzz to, obviously, garner a f*cking press conference (laughs).”
UFC 301 Was in an Unfortunate Position
It could be said that UFC 301 was put in somewhat of an unfair position. This is due to it following up a historically stacked UFC 300. It was widely speculated that Pantoja and Erceg wasn’t meant to be the main event. However, the light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira was meant to defend his title in the main event instead of Pantoja. However, due to a middleweight title fight between Dricus Du Plessis and Israel Adesanya fizzled out Pereira was moved to UFC 300.
The UFC then somewhat scrambled to find a new co-main event due to Pantoja and Erceg moving up to becoming the new main event. Due to this, the UFC called on the help of a fellow UFC great Jose Aldo. Jose Aldo was coming back into the UFC for the first time since 2022. Aldo was able to get the unanimous decision victory however, it seemingly didn’t bolster enough intrigue from the fans. This is if you are following Johnson’s YouTube views as his Aldo breakdown video had 35,000 to 36,000 views where as the prediction did 24,000 at the time of filming his post-fight recap.
Demetrious Johnson Feels Erceg Threw Away the Fight
After Alexandre Pantoja was able to defend his title at UFC 301, he has proven to be a big obstacle for anyone wanting to take the title from him. Steve Erceg has had his fair share of success despite his UFC flyweight title shot coming after 11 months of being in the promotion. However, while he hasn’t been in the UFC for much time he has been able to achieve 3 straight victories. Steve Erceg was able to cause damage throughout the five-round contest. Demetrious Johnson feels if it wasn’t for poor decision-making from Erceg at the end he would have left with the belt. Demetrious Johnson explained this when he said;
“He literally just gave the fight away by trying to wrestle a guy who can’t box,” Demetrious Johnson said of Erceg. “This is the biggest thing: I think it just comes from experience for Erceg — just not having experience of finishing someone when you know you’re beating the hell out of ‘em.
“End of the fight, great fight. I just feel — I think Erceg gave that fight to Pantoja. I think if Erceg stayed behind his jab, stop f*cking wrestling him, he would have been fine.”
