Issue 143
July 2016
It’s time MMA’s untouchable lord of the flies dared to be great
Nick Peet, FO’s editor challenges Demetrious Johnson to reach for the stars
Sold. What more appropriate a platform did we need to identify exactly who is the pound-for-pound number-one athlete in mixed martial arts than UFC 197? As Demetrious Johnson preceded Jon Jones into the Octagon we were afforded the perfect opportunity to draw a direct comparison between MMA’s two standout stars.
And while I could write for days about the nature of those matchups – of each opponents’ strengths and weaknesses and the circumstances that may have impacted on both fighters’ performances – forget all that. Let’s just call this how we saw it.
Johnson and Jones have so much in common in the cage. Both are very tactically aware and technical fighters. Both fight best on the front foot, excel when engaging in the clinch and build everything off of creating openings with kicks and knees, using strong footwork and solid spacial awareness. From a technical standpoint, there really isn’t too much to separate them.
But you’re only as good as your last performance and, last time out, Johnson absolutely excelled against Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo – the latest in a long line of “toughest tests” for the champion. Jones, meanwhile, appeared to fluff his lines against Ovince Saint Preux – if you can call a whitewash points victory over very good opponent that, which I will.
Right now the flyweight master is the leading technician in mixed martial arts. But he’s not yet great. He is categorically and utterly dominant at 125lb. But being the biggest fish in the smallest pond does not elevate even the most comprehensive champion to the status of real greatness.
Jon Jones is great. His career performances, becoming the youngest ever UFC champion and possessing a fight résumé that includes the faces that would line the main corridor of a future MMA Hall of Fame, have ensured that. Jones not only defeated, but largely embarrassed a generation of fight sports’ icons to climb to the top of the light heavyweight division. He’s already a couple of chapters into his legacy story.
But ‘Mighty Mouse’s career is stuck in the opening chapters, and showing few signs of progressing. Being the first and only 125lb man to wear UFC gold is a career-defining status, no doubt. But if he wants to cement a true legacy in the sport – as he professes to do in this issue (see page 54) – he simply has to think bigger.
Moving up to bantamweight may not suit the champion. History tells us as much, as Johnson’s only losses were when he competed at 135lb. But they are the only blemishes in 16 fights – one in his WEC debut against plucky Brit Brad Pickett and the other in a UFC title match with Dominick Cruz.
That’s the same Cruz who once again resides over the 135lb weight class, yet has managed just two fights since that 2011 victory over ‘DJ’.
While Cruz has been dogged by injury, Johnson has not only progressed to make an entire weight class his own, he’s also gone 11 fights unbeaten and evolved into the planet’s pound-for-pound leader in many peoples’ eyes.
Stepping up 10lb to challenge Cruz (should ‘The Dominator’ successfully dispatch old adversary Urijah Faber at UFC 199) would eclipse anything Johnson has achieved at 125lb. It would write the next chapter in his legacy story. And it would elevate his status to truly one of the sport’s greatest champions.
Be great DJ. I dare you.
Holding His Own
Not beaten up as a bantam
Demetrious Johnson outlanded Dominick Cruz in their first fight, landing 63 significant strikes to his opponent’s 60. But ‘The Dominator’ hit 10 takedowns to ‘DJ’s one to win a decision.
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