Every fight is a tough one when it comes to the flyweight division and at UFC 174 it is no different for champ Demetrious Johnson. He will step inside the Octagon on Saturday evening against Ali Bagautinov, who is riding an 11-fight winning streak going into this title contest.
Johnson is the only man to hold on to the flyweight gold and has successfully defended it on three occasions. There is a fair share of challengers in arguably one of the most talent rich divisions in MMA, but “Mighty Mouse” feels like some of them won’t get a chance to showcase those skills.
“I’m not the type of guy who goes out there and calls out names,” Johnson told the media at EA Sports. “But there are guys in this division that pose challenges. They are not at the top contenders, because they haven’t had a chance to fight those top contenders and if they do they might not ever get a chance to fight for the belt.”
Being a huge video game fan, Johnson referenced one of his all-time favorite games when talking about the challengers coming up in the 125-pound division.
“I use that reference of Mortal Kombat, if you’re going to fight Shao Kahn, you’ve got to beat Minotauro and a lot of people can’t beat Minotauro. Minotauro is John Dodson and Joseph Benavidez, so in order for them to fight the champ, they’re going to have to fight those guys. There are a lot of guys in this division that pose challenges that I haven’t fought yet.”
We will see if “Mighty Mouse” unleashes his inner Mortal Kombat this Saturday night live on Pay-Per-View in the main event at UFC 174.
