Dana White Confirms T.J. Dillashaw vs. Demetrious Johnson
Despite all of the drama of making this fight happen the first go around, the UFC and its President Dana White have finally received what they wanted which is flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson vs. current bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw
White confirmed that Johnson’s next title defense would be against Dillashaw.
“Yeah, that fight’s going to happen,” White told reporters at the post-event press conference for UFC 218 (transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie). “We haven’t announced it yet.”
If you recall, earlier this year, Johnson and White frequently exchanged words. Johnson was not receptive to a fight with Dillashaw even though White and other UFC officials were pushing for it. White came out and mocked Johnson for taking it.
This led to Johnson firing back and claimed that White threatened to shut down his entire division. White denied that and gave Johnson the fight he wanted, which was against Borg that is almost guaranteed to do low PPV numbers. Apparently, though, that’s water under the bridge.
White didn’t reveal when and where the fight would take place, or whether he’d yet spoken to Johnson, who was in attendance at the pay-per-view event. Johnson watched cageside as his former opponent Henry Cejudo beat Sergio Pettis on the main card.
Johnson went on record by declaring he would need $2 million to agree to this bout. White balked at the demand.
After taking the bantamweight title this past month from his rival Cody Garbrandt at UFC 217, Dillashaw renewed his call to move down in weight to challenge Johnson.
The UFC flyweight champion turned down the potential fight a few months ago in favor of a record-breaking 11th title defense against Ray Borg in October.
