Long reigning former UFC Flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson said that he wouldn’t be sad at all if the UFC got rid of the 125lbs weight class.
Demetrious Johnson was the 1st-ever UFC Flyweight champion and ruled the division with an iron fist starting in 2012, up until he lost his belt to Henry Cejudo in 2018. A few months down the line after losing the title to Cejudo, the UFC made a deal with ONE Championship, trading Johnson for Ben Askren. Demetrious Johnson has been a star for ONE FC ever since.
Since then, Cejudo has vacated the Flyweight belt, which forced the UFC to set up a vacant title fight between Joseph Benavidez and Deiveson Figueiredo. It seemed like everything was going to work out, until Figueiredo missed weight and he wasn’t eligible to win the belt. Ironically, Figueiredo knocked out Benavidez in the 2nd-round and now there is no title holder at 125lbs.
There is now speculation that the UFC might be considering shutting down the Flyweight division, due to lack of fighters and having no champion. Speaking on the Ariel Helwani’s ESPN MMA Show, “Mighty Mouse” was asked if he would be sad if the UFC shut down the Flyweight division. He says that no, he wouldn’t be at all.
“On #HelwaniShow @arielhelwani : “Would you be sad it (the UFC) shut down the (flyweight) division? Demetrious Johnson: “No, not at all!””
Not that long ago the UFC had considered shutting down Flyweight, but the division “was rescued” by Cejudo beating Johnson. Now that Cejudo has moved up to compete at Bantamweight and Flyweight has been left with no champion, there is a possibility that the division could be shut down.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 3rd March, 2020.
Discussion about this post