Demetrious Johnson Credit score: ONE Championship
Alexandre Pantoja won’t be getting the Christmas present he’s searching for this yr in any case.
At UFC 310 on Saturday, after choking out RIZIN champ Kai Asakura, Brazil’s Pantoja known as for a combat with Demetrious Johnson.
The callout of “Mighty Mouse” was a slightly attention-grabbing one: the inaugural UFC flyweight champion, who later moved to ONE Championship and claimed a title there, just lately retired. Nonetheless, he’s thought-about the flyweight GOAT, and very similar to Georges St-Pierre after he hung up the gloves, there’s nonetheless a want to see him compete.
Talking with media retailers together with Cageside Press following UFC 310 on the T-Cell Area in Las Vegas, Pantoja known as the combat the reply to “what do you want for Christmas?” Nicely, right here’s hoping there’s just a few extra objects on his record.
In response to Pantoja’s callout, Johnson has confirmed he won’t be returning to motion. “Why would I do that? The bank account is sitting nice and good. 38 years old, 11 consecutive title defenses. The champ ain’t coming back,” mentioned “Mighty Mouse” through his official Youtube channel. Since retiring, Demetrious Johnson has centered on enterprise ventures, in addition to social media and streaming, with a formidable following on Twitch specifically.
Johnson took over a yr off earlier than making his retirement resolution, and now claims he doesn’t miss combating. What’s extra, he’s already been provided $2 million by one other promotion to return again for a single combat – and declined.
“You know what the beautiful thing about the position I’m in is? I’ve been offered $2 million dollars to come and do one fight. One fight and what do you guys think I said? I said no. I said absolutely no,” Johnson revealed. “It wasn’t with the UFC. It wasn’t against Alex Pantoja. I’m not going to tell you who it was with but I got offered $2 million dollars to fight and there comes a point in time in an athlete’s career where you sit back and you’ll be ‘like why am I fighting?’ Is it to be the best in the world? Shit, I was the best in the world for six years. Not just in America but also in Japan and I went up a division. I went to 135 instead of 125.”
Johnson went on so as to add that “I gave myself a full-blown year to see if I’m going to miss it, if it’s my identity. And I didn’t miss it.”
Sorry, Alexandre Pantoja. There’s little question the UFC will be capable to produce extra contenders internally nevertheless.
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Author : admin
Publish date : 2024-12-09 16:32:31
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