Demetrious Johnson may well be the greatest flyweight ever to grace the UFC. He strung together eleven consecutive title defenses, but his impressive streak may never have come to be if Dana White followed through on a threat. On The MMA Hour, Johnson revealed that the UFC president once called him a “dumbass” and threatened to close the entire 125-pound division, all over an errant comment on a Twitch stream.
“It was when I was streaming on Twitch. I’m playing a game — and when I started streaming on Twitch, I started being more vocal — and somebody in the Twitch chat goes, ‘Hey man, did you hear about The Ultimate Fighter? What they’re going to do next?’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ and he goes, ‘They’re going to do The Ultimate Fighter, it’s going to be all the champions and they’re going fight you and the winner gets to fight [for the belt].’ And I go, ‘Well that’s f****** stupid.’
Demetrious Johnson Reveals that Dana White Threatened to Cancel UFC Flyweight Division
And then I was like, ‘What about the guys on a five-fight win streak? What about Joseph Benavidez? They’re just going to skip the line?’ I said that and the next day I got a phone call from Dana White.
Dana White never called me when I was in the UFC. He called and he goes, ‘You dumbass! You just ruined this whole thing we’re trying to set up for you! Blah, blah, blah.’
And I was like, ‘Well I just found out online from a random dude on Twitch and I gave him an honest opinion.’ And then he goes, ‘Sean Shelby didn’t call you?’ ‘No, he didn’t call me.’ And he goes, ‘Alright. Bye.’ He hangs up and the next day I get a call from Sean Shelby, ‘Hey, yeah bro —’ Too late! Too late dude.”
White later threatened to close the flyweight division over a potential bout between Johnson and T.J. Dillashaw. “They wanted us to fight T.J. Dillashaw and I said we’ll fight him for $1 million.
Then the thing was, I knew T.J. couldn’t make 125 healthy. I knew that and so did Matt [Hume, Johnson’s coach]. We knew that because he’s already shredded at 135.
So Matt wanted to put it in the contract saying if T.J. Dillashaw does not make weight at 125, we fight him for his belt, and they said no. ‘We’re not doing that.’ Okay then, well, what’s going to happen and that’s when they were like, ‘We’re going to close the division.’
So I said I’ll fight T.J. for $1 million. It’s a superfight! Let’s make it happen.’ But they wouldn’t do that and that’s when they were like, ‘We’re going to close the division.’ Well, close the motherf****** division then!’ They didn’t do it and that’s when I came out with the letter and it was like, what do I have to do?”
