Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping was less than complimentary while breaking down the Demetrious Johnson’s potential fight against TJ Dillashaw.
In fact, Bisping used his time on the air of his own podcast to throw the entire UFC flyweight division under the bus, while making the case as to why “Mighty Mouse” needs to take the Dillashaw fight to secure his legacy.
Here’s what Bisping said:
“That is kind of frustrating because Demetrious Johnson, I’m telling you, he probably is the pound-for-pound best. When you look at the way he performs, you think, ‘Yeah, he’s pound-for-pound the best,’ but then you look at his opponents and it’s like, I can look fantastic if I’m fighting my daughter. I can do crazy s**t. I can pick her up and suplex her and put her in an armbar. I could pull off the sickest submissions if I was doing it against a 12-year-old girl.
“I’m not saying that Demetrious’ former opponents are like that of a 12-year-old girl – maybe 15. You see the point I’m making. Some of the competition has been very, very good but that’s always been the classic, cliche, knock on his career, that the competition hasn’t been as good. Then we hear about T.J. vs. DJ and it’s like, ‘Wow, here’s an opportunity where Demetrious Johnson can prove that he can beat somebody like T.J. Dillashaw.’”
“Obviously I was only having a bit of fun. You’ve got to give DJ his credit. He’s incredible. He’s always looking for the finish. He’s exciting, he really is. But the competition, unless you were a hardcore MMA fan, you wouldn’t know who the hell they were if you walked past them. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t recognize some of those guys and I live and breathe mixed martial arts. If some of those guys walked past me in the street, I wouldn’t know. . .
“You need fantastic opponents. You need opponents that bring out the best in you. You need opponents that can give you a run for your money. And some of those people have given him a really good run for his money but some of them he’s completely wiped out.”
“Another knock has been that he hasn’t been a proven draw. He hasn’t sold big pay-per-views. I don’t think that’s Demetrious’ fault. I think that’s just the trend that we see in combat sports. Super light weight classes like that have always had a hard time drawing at the box office. But him against T.J., that’s an interesting fight. That’s a fight that gets people to sit up, take notice, give him respect, and essentially, earn them both a lot of money.”
