Last week it was announced that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones had injured his leg and would be forced out of his scheduled fight at UFC 178 against the former Olympian Daniel Cormier. This match being pulled from the card was not only a huge blow to the UFC; it was a blow to mixed martial arts fans around the world. Leading up to this fight, Jones and Cormier had exchanged words regularly and even came to blows at a press conference. With such excitement already built for this match-up, the UFC is left to fill some rather large shoes. So where does the UFC go when they need to fill large shoes? To the lightest male weight class in the UFC of course! With the Jones v. Cormier bout on hold, UFC officials have announced that the night’s former co-main event, a UFC Flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and Chris Cariaso, will be featured as the night’s main event. Normally when a title fight takes the place of another title fight you won’t hear many complaints, but that isn’t the case when it comes to a men’s Flyweight title fight. Whether it is because of the size of the fighters, their generally very technical bouts, or a perceived lack of power, you won’t hear many people clamoring for a Flyweight main event, even with a belt attached.
One man has ruled the UFC’s Flyweight division since the weight class was introduced a little over two years ago; that man is Kirkland, Washington’s Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. Johnson might be the fastest man to ever set foot inside of the octagon and he has used his speed and movement to outclass most people he has faced. But there is a problem when it comes to Johnson; he has been given the sometimes unwashable label of boring. Once people have started throwing the word ‘boring’ around to describe a fighter, it is a stigma that never seems to disappear completely. Even a fighter as highly regarded as Georges St-Pierre could never shake the label of boring, even though St-Pierre has eight wins by stoppage and six fight night bonuses to his credit. Johnson has truly honed his craft under the tutelage of Matt “The Wizard” Hume at AMC Kickboxing & Pankration in Seattle. Hume has helped Johnson to develop a style that has Johnson using sharp and dynamic movement coupled with a kickboxing style that allows the UFC champ to inflict a great deal of damage while taking very little of his own. This style has led to a few bouts for Johnson that have gone a full five rounds when many people felt Johnson could have easily pursued a finish. That being said, Johnson, much like the aforementioned St-Pierre, has multiple Fight Night bonuses to go along with two finishes with only ten UFC fights to his credit. Many of Johnson’s fights even took place at Bantamweight, where Johnson was pitted against much larger competition. In Johnson’s most recent fight, the champion turned in a dominant win over the highly regarded wrestler Ali Bagautinov. As this match-up started to unfold it was clear to everyone in the room that Bagautinov was not that difficult a match-up for Johnson. This became very apparent as the fans began to trickle out of the arena halfway through the fight. By the time the fight had finished, what appeared to be around half of the people in attendance had already exited the arena. This fight was as dominant a performance as one will see, bell to bell in the UFC. However, the label of ‘boring’ only got bigger following this performance. With this fight in his rearview it will be up to Johnson if he wishes to try and stop the criticism. Johnson will be forced to either put himself in a better position to secure a finish or continue being one of the most accurate and dominant champions in the UFC when he meets Chris Cariaso in September, even if some people think he is boring.
The choice to award Chris Cariaso a title shot against Johnson was not met with great favor in the press. It seemed as if the announcement was rushed, and maybe the timing was more confusing than the choice of fighter. Realistically, Cariaso is as deserving of a title shot as anyone at 125 pounds. Cariaso sports a 7-3 record in the UFC and has notable wins over Vaughn Lee and Takeya Mizugaki. In addition to his respectable win/loss record, Cariaso is known as a fighter who has exciting back and forth fights. Because of this style and his veteran experience Cariaso will hopefully provide a tough test for Johnson. If Johnson wants to change peoples’ minds about his fights, the time is now. Johnson is hoping to have fight cards built around him that take place in his home state in the future and it will be more important than ever that he show the UFC brass that he can command a crowd. In the meantime, fans should try and appreciate just what Johnson is doing. With four very dominant title defenses Johnson is not showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, Johnson only seems to be getting better. If the cost of greatness is a few people thinking you’re boring, I can’t imagine Johnson paying those people much attention.
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