Michael Bisping Explains Why Demetrious Johnson Needs To Fight TJ Dillashaw

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping strongly believes that this fight needs to be made.

That fight is of course between UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, which is a history that has been well documented.

During a recent edition of his Believe You Me podcast, Bisping discussed the potential fight. He noted that the challenges of making this fight a reality has become “frustrating.” Bisping would like to see Johnson fight some real competition.

“That is kind of frustrating because Demetrious Johnson, I’m telling you, he probably is the pound-for-pound best,” said Bisping (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “When you look at the way he performs, you think, ‘Yeah, he’s pound-for-pound the best,’ but then you look at his opponents and it’s like, I can look fantastic if I’m fighting my daughter. I can do crazy s**t. I can pick her up and suplex her and put her in an armbar. I could pull off the sickest submissions if I was doing it against a 12-year-old girl.

“I’m not saying that Demetrious’ former opponents are like that of a 12-year-old girl – maybe 15. You see the point I’m making. Some of the competition has been very, very good but that’s always been the classic, cliche, knock on his career, that the competition hasn’t been as good. Then we hear about T.J. vs. DJ and it’s like, ‘Wow, here’s an opportunity where Demetrious Johnson can prove that he can beat somebody like T.J. Dillashaw.’”

Johnson was not receptive to a fight with Dillashaw even though UFC President Dana White and other UFC officials were pushing for it last year. 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 as White has gone on record by stating that this is a fight that will happen. Problem is, we still don’t know when. According to Bisping, Johnson’s ability to appeal to the public at large is an issue.

“Obviously I was only having a bit of fun,” said Bisping. “You’ve got to give DJ his credit. He’s incredible. He’s always looking for the finish. He’s exciting, he really is. But the competition, unless you were a hardcore MMA fan, you wouldn’t know who the hell they were if you walked past them. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t recognize some of those guys and I live and breathe mixed martial arts. If some of those guys walked past me in the street, I wouldn’t know. . .

“You need fantastic opponents. You need opponents that bring out the best in you. You need opponents that can give you a run for your money. And some of those people have given him a really good run for his money but some of them he’s completely wiped out.”