What it's like to face Demetrious Johnson

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GSPTrainingInAPool

Man on the silver mountain
Dec 1, 2015
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When Demetrious Johnson steps into the Octagon on Saturday night at UFC 216, he'll look to cement his legacy as arguably the best mixed martial artist ever. The current flyweight champion, who has not lost in six years, takes on Ray Borg in Las Vegas and a win would be his 11th title defense in a row, surpassing Anderson Silva's record for the most all time.

To get a sense of what it's like to compete against a legend, we spoke with eight of Johnson's former opponents -- seven of which fought for a championship belt and one who handed "Mighty Mouse" his last defeat.

What it's like to face Demetrious Johnson
 

ECC170

Monster's 11,ATM 2,Parlay Challenge,Hero GP Champ
Pro Fighter
Jan 23, 2015
14,376
23,677
I fighting him is like ice skating up hill I would suppose.
 

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
Great article. I love stuff like this. It's always cool to see when the fellow community of fighters acknowledges how next level you are.
 

tang

top korean roofer
Oct 21, 2015
9,398
12,402
They didn't interview Ali. He'd probably have said, "I fuckin cheated and he still beat me. Respect." in Russian language.

Great article and shows how negligent the UFC really is or they hate on this guy for being no draw. If UFC promoted him just like how this article was written, ppl would tune in.

The way everyone talks about him is like if talking about the "GOAT" but too bad ppl don't recognize it just for the fact that he's a midget.
 

TheFifthScallop

Who am I kidding? I’m a whore.
Amateur Fighter
Nov 15, 2015
5,833
7,373
They didn't interview Ali. He'd probably have said, "I fuckin cheated and he still beat me. Respect." in Russian language.

Great article and shows how negligent the UFC really is or they hate on this guy for being no draw. If UFC promoted him just like how this article was written, ppl would tune in.

The way everyone talks about him is like if talking about the "GOAT" but too bad ppl don't recognize it just for the fact that he's a midget.
The people who hate on DJ because he fights at 125 are retarded, in my opinion. He finishes fights, his movement and timing are far superior to any other fighter, he's technically sound. It's absolutely ridiculous to hate on him if you actually understand and enjoy martial arts.
 

tang

top korean roofer
Oct 21, 2015
9,398
12,402
The people who hate on DJ because he fights at 125 are retarded, in my opinion. He finishes fights, his movement and timing are far superior to any other fighter, he's technically sound. It's absolutely ridiculous to hate on him if you actually understand and enjoy martial arts.
it's sad but majority of fans are like that
 

Yossarian

TMMAC Addict
Oct 25, 2015
13,489
19,127
The people who hate on DJ because he fights at 125 are retarded, in my opinion. He finishes fights, his movement and timing are far superior to any other fighter, he's technically sound. It's absolutely ridiculous to hate on him if you actually understand and enjoy martial arts.
You can't force people who to like and who not. Not many people like MM because they may think he's too small, too boring, he ducked TJ Dillashaw, could be a number of reasons. Whether he's technically sound or not is an entirely different discussion though; it has little to do with viewership. People need to know this by now.
 

The EZ Life

Posting Machine
Aug 6, 2015
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Here's what it'd be like for me and many others to fight DJ, if unaware of who he is.


*in my head* this little guy won't be able to hurt me

*20 seconds later after waking up* what the hell just happened
 
C

Ceiling Fan

Guest
I imagine it's like grappling with a fire tornado. And yes, Fire Whirls are real things.

 

Wild

Zi Nazi
Admin
Dec 31, 2014
85,004
123,330
Here's what it'd be like for me and many others to fight DJ, if unaware of who he is.


*in my head* this little guy won't be able to hurt me

*20 seconds later after waking up* what the hell just happened
Exactly. He'd handle 98% of the American public, with ease.
 
1

1031

Guest
It'd be interesting to see if he can step up a weight class and see what he can do.
 

Muridae83

Posting Machine
Nov 3, 2016
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It'd be interesting to see if he can step up a weight class and see what he can do.
In most cases we would like to see a fighter step up a wieghtclass due to a super fight of some kind. In MM's case its that hes just superior everywhere to fighters in his weight division.. For example, he rivaled Dodson speed and in certain areas surpassed it (Dodson at that time was considered the fastest fighter). Take Borg last night... great scrambler... who won 95% of all scrambling in that fight? he knocked out Benavidez and Benavidez was knocking out ppl left and right at that time. The only guy recently that gave MM some trouble was Tim Elliot that had both a size advantage and reach advantage. This is the main reason we want him to step up a division cuz unless u have a size and reach advantage it aint really a fair fight, thats how good he is!!!
 

Darqnezz

Merkin' fools since pre-school
Apr 25, 2015
4,653
7,214
If you don’t consider MM one of the greatest of all time, just because of his size, you know absolutely nothing about the fight game.
 
1

1031

Guest
In most cases we would like to see a fighter step up a wieghtclass due to a super fight of some kind. In MM's case its that hes just superior everywhere to fighters in his weight division.. For example, he rivaled Dodson speed and in certain areas surpassed it (Dodson at that time was considered the fastest fighter). Take Borg last night... great scrambler... who won 95% of all scrambling in that fight? he knocked out Benavidez and Benavidez was knocking out ppl left and right at that time. The only guy recently that gave MM some trouble was Tim Elliot that had both a size advantage and reach advantage. This is the main reason we want him to step up a division cuz unless u have a size and reach advantage it aint really a fair fight, thats how good he is!!!
You make good points but I'm going to be logical here so please don't go on the attack:
MM beating the shit out of everyone in his weight class doesn't necessarily prove that he is great.
Logically, one could just as easily say those guys are just average fighters, maybe they are great at one or two things that comprise what mma is but they are all just average.
Ali beat great fighters
Fedor beat great fighters
Who are the great fighters Demetrious has beaten?

This is pretty much the reason people exclude Tyson from consideration as one of the greats. It's all just idle fan-talk because he's demolished everyone he has had to but if we are going to engage in idle fan-talk then we ought to be objective imo.
 

Darqnezz

Merkin' fools since pre-school
Apr 25, 2015
4,653
7,214
You make good points but I'm going to be logical here so please don't go on the attack:
MM beating the shit out of everyone in his weight class doesn't necessarily prove that he is great.
Logically, one could just as easily say those guys are just average fighters, maybe they are great at one or two things that comprise what mma is but they are all just average.
Ali beat great fighters
Fedor beat great fighters
Who are the great fighters Demetrious has beaten?

This is pretty much the reason people exclude Tyson from consideration as one of the greats. It's all just idle fan-talk because he's demolished everyone he has had to but if we are going to engage in idle fan-talk then we ought to be objective imo.
People don’t consider Tyson one of the greats because of his fall from grace. Plus he lost most of his fights when he returned from prison.
 
1

1031

Guest
People don’t consider Tyson one of the greats because of his fall from grace. Plus he lost most of his fights when he returned from prison.
That's not the main reason most people (I have heard) exclude him from being one of the greats.
 

Yossarian

TMMAC Addict
Oct 25, 2015
13,489
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If you don’t consider MM one of the greatest of all time, just because of his size, you know absolutely nothing about the fight game.
In a a tiny weightclass there's going to be less competition. You can't be the greatest in a tiny wieghtclass with a GSP around having done what he did. Remember when Ronda was the greatest of all time? No, just no.

Already dicrediting people for having an opinion. It doesn't change those facts, and that he ducked competition (TJ) while taking on a far lesser ranked opponent to get his record* GOAT is thrown around way to easily, and that is the case with Mighty Mouse as well. If you cherry pick your opponents, then GOAT is out of the question, especially when you fight in a hollow division.
 

tang

top korean roofer
Oct 21, 2015
9,398
12,402
I bet he could beat up Shaq.

MM can run around until Shaq gasses amd kick him in the balls really hard. Then with the same motion, jump on Shaq’s back for RNC (just gotta hope Shaq doesn’t fall backwards cuz it’ll crush MM)
 

Yossarian

TMMAC Addict
Oct 25, 2015
13,489
19,127
I bet he could beat up Shaq.

MM can run around until Shaq gasses amd kick him in the balls really hard. Then with the same motion, jump on Shaq’s back for RNC (just gotta hope Shaq doesn’t fall backwards cuz it’ll crush MM)
and hopefully isn't greased up...