Less than 48 hours left until Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson defends his UFC flyweight title against John Moraga, the inaugural champion is seemingly looking ahead to his next fight. In the world of mixed martial arts, this is a common occurrence and one that can be considered dangerous, especially for the champion. For Johnson, he’s not looking at a fight with another flyweight. Instead, he is looking at interim UFC bantamweight champion, Renan Barao.
The MMA fans and MMA community love these super fights. Prior to his UFC middleweight title defense against Chris Weidman, Anderson Silva was being linked to fights with Jon Jones and/or Georges St-Pierre. While that is not likely the reason why Silva lose his title that night, it could have helped him to not take his undefeated challenger seriously.
The bantamweight division is nothing new to Johnson. He spent his entire career at the 135-pound weight class and was 14-2 in that division. During his time as a bantamweight fighter, Johnson picked up big wins against Damacio Page and the former face of the division in World Extreme Cagefighting, Miguel Angel Torres.
His last fight in the division was when he fought for the UFC bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz. In that fight, the MMA world saw that Johnson had the talent to compete with the best fighters in the world, but he was undersized compared to Cruz. If Johnson can get past Moraga (not a given) and a fight with Barao is made, he might suffer from the same problem.
The other thing about super fights is a fighter usually needs to clear out the division before he gets to move around. Silva cleaned out the middleweight division, but never got a chance to fight someone the caliber of Jones or St-Pierre, rather he fought guys like Stephan Bonnar and James Irvin.
We’ll see how things go with Johnson when he defends his title, but a fight with Barao could be in his and our future. It’s a fight that would be fun to watch and one that will leave the MMA community on the edge of their seats.
