Media Demetrious Johnson: "Flyweights Should NEVER Main Event" At UFC

[SuperNerd]

A lot of their challengers don’t get promoted or are buried in prelims/fight nights.

Flyweights go from #1 contender fights on the prelims, to main event spots in a UFC title fight.

The division is treated like a prelim division by the promotion.
You're fighting for the title, or near the bottom of the card.

Fans have been conditioned. They know they're getting fights that would be a prelim bout, if it wasn't for the gold belt with a ufc logo.

Before fighting for the title, Alex Perez was fighting on the EARLY prelim. Then we're supposed to take his next bout as meaningful? he's a champion level fighter?
The UFC doesn't even pretend they're special, or lie to us. 125 is treated like the step-child division.

You can go back and see a lot of the #1 contender fights for the 125 title. Very few of them are on PPV main cards. They're prelims, or at best, opening Fight Night cards.

 

[Dr Fong]

UFC have no interest in their brand?

I'm share stakeholders do not share that sentiment.

You can't do Esperza vs cleaning lady every card, of course. But you can do it once a while and there seemse little ESPN can do about it.

It's not too far off what they have actually been doing at times.

 

[Siver!]

You can't do Esperza vs cleaning lady every card, of course. But you can do it once a while and there seemse little ESPN can do about it.

It's not too far off what they have actually been doing at times.

The problem the UFC is inevitably gonna have is they pretty much have to make sure all potential contenders have had some level of focus. Either a main event of a Fight Night or visibility on a numbered main card.

The thing a lot of non-matchmakers would do is have every event headlined by someone everyone has heard of, including Apex Fight Nights.

That doesn't create interest in new stars. They rolled the dice on people like Gaziev and Pyfer, for example, but they both crashed and burned in the main event slot. They've been doing it with Brendan Allen, Imavov, Yadong Song, and others.

Now I'm not gonna say we don't get terrible Fight Night main events with irrelevant guys because we do, but a lot of the time there seems to be a purpose in having guys who would never headline a numbered card top the bill on a Fight Night. I think sometimes people rag on main events that are actually logical, though.

Not every Fight Night can be headlined by Gaethje or Dustin, nor should they be.

Erceg was a real rush job because no effort had gone into establishing him as a contender, he'd just won some fights.

 

[Tweak896]

Thank god mclovin didnt win. FLW would be sunk.

At least Pantoja is cool...but the div is in desperate need of guys who are gonna draw attention to it and make some noise.

100%. I just remember around DJ's reign we thought the talent pool was so shallow they would dissolve it. Now it had a few solid guys, just needs some new blood to make waves.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

The Aldo fight was the reason I tuned in.

 

[blaseblase]

Naoya Inoue is smaller than a flyweight and just sold out the Tokyo Dome so its definitely possible for a small fighter to main event a big event. The UFC just hasnt found the fighter to do it yet

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They had one in Cejudo, but he didn't want to stay in the division.

 

[ipowerslapmywife]

Bruce Lee could’ve done it

 

[surgeyou1]

There's just been zero star power at FLW. Pacquiao is the size of a modern FLW and he was one of the biggest stars in boxing. I don't buy that "too small to care" stuff. Maybe the average FLW will never get the same buzz as the average higher weight but a star is a star no matter what.

 

[laleggenda27]

I actually think the UFC put a fair amount of promotional muscle behind MM. He headlined a bunch of UFC on FOX cards, which had tons of viewers (substantially more than PPVs); he was the main event of a handful of PPVs; he was on a number of cards that had multiple title fights; and they put him on cards with some of the biggest names in the sport: Jones, Conor, Bisping, etc.

Simply put, the 125'ers don't resonate with people. They're obviously very skilled, and they put on some fun fights. But they're so small that it almost feels like a novelty. It's difficult for most people to see "little people" fighting and take it seriously.

 

[RockyLockridge]

He is right, iirc correctly Johnson never headlined a ppv and that's because FLW don't draw money but since we are in the ESPN era where ppv buys don't matter I guess U Fight Cheap don't give a fuck and put any champ to headlone.

he's headlined ppvs

 

[mb23100]

I remember watching Embedded when he was in his above ground pool and thinking "Sherdog is gonna be all over this". Sure enough I came here and the "Demetrious Johnson has an above ground pool" thread was already 6 pages deep lmao.

 

[Simple Southerner]

Manlets recognize manlets

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

it just ain't gonna fly in the US. never will.

 

[560ti]

He is right, iirc correctly Johnson never headlined a ppv and that's because FLW don't draw money but since we are in the ESPN era where ppv buys don't matter I guess U Fight Cheap don't give a fuck and put any champ to headlone.

He did headline some ppvs but most weren't with him being the first choice.

He headlined four ppvs

He headlined 4 but 3 of them where ppvs in which another fight was suppose to headline but fell through (dillashaw vs barao, Gustafson vs Jones, and cormier vs Gustafson).

His fight with Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174 was the only PPV he headlined where it was actually intention.

 

[Dr Fong]

Naoya Inoue is smaller than a flyweight and just sold out the Tokyo Dome so its definitely possible for a small fighter to main event a big event. The UFC just hasnt found the fighter to do it yet

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Boxing fans have gone through severe psychological abuse for decades which has conditioned them to treat literal midgets seriously and call them 'P4P kings'. People are on this very forum acting like a 5'4 "Tank" is the baddest man on the planet.

While we can all respect his skills, I would rather scrub my balls with a porcupine than watch a WW+ Floyd Mayweather fight replay and yet the whole world tuned in for it.

If boxers aren't incredibly defensive and boring, then particularly American boxing fans aren't interested because of how the media gaslights them. Who needs KOs when you can watch a dwarf hug and cheat all fight?

MMA fans have gone through their own trauma that causes their own forms of retardation, but aren't quite as far down the road of insanity as boxing fans when it comes to paying to watch midget fights. Yet.

 

[leto1776]

Lick that boot

 

[leto1776]

Boxing fans have gone through severe psychological abuse for decades which has conditioned them to treat literal midgets seriously and call them 'P4P kings'. People are on this very forum acting like a 5'4 "Tank" is the baddest man on the planet.

While we can all respect his skills, I would rather scrub my balls with a porcupine than watch a WW+ Floyd Mayweather fight replay and yet the whole world tuned in for it.

If boxers aren't incredibly defensive and boring, then particularly American boxing fans aren't interested because of how the media gaslights them. Who needs KOs when you can watch a dwarf hug and cheat all fight?

MMA fans have gone through their own trauma that causes their own forms of retardation, but aren't quite as far down the road of insanity as boxing fans when it comes to paying to watch midget fights. Yet.

Evidence that an older join date does not equate to better posts

 

[CatchtheseHands]

If Mighty Mouse couldn't get people to tune in, no FLW will unless they run their mouth a shit ton.

Mighty Mouse had everything else to be a big star but is just a dude that goes out, wins fights and generally did so in dominant fashion and was respectful.

The general fan doesn't care about this shit. They resonate with shit talkers.

It has nothin to do with shit talking. GSP was not a shit talker and sold PPV's. Alex is not a shit talker and sells PPV's. It's the fact that FLW is not a popular weight class in MMA outside of Asia.

 

[ferrisjso]

I vaguely remember 135 and 145 being treated similar when they were the lowest division. The only way to fix is to make a 115 division then the bad treatment would simply be transferred to the strawweights. American sports fans are deeply discriminatory at their core against smaller people.

 

[sdpdude9]

I think people that claim nobody cares about small guys strictly because they are small are mistaken. The public at large doesn’t care about that. Plenty care about 135ers. The biggest factor is the division is yet to have any serious shit talkers or personalities that draw in interest. There is nobody like that nor has there been.

Also look at most recent title challengers prior to their title fight and their placement on cards.

Erceg- Apex Card
Royval- FN Prelims
Pantoja- PPV Main Card
Moreno- PPV Prelims
Figueiredo- FN Prelims

Only 1 of the last fight was featured somewhat prominently before they fought for the title, Pantoja, and it was on kind of a weak ppv.