Former Champ Gets The Hook From UFC In Blockbuster Trade
When you’ve done nothing but dominant throughout your entire mixed-martial arts career, you’d expect that what comes with it is the adoration and respect from your company that employees you.
Not the case for Demetrious Johnson, who is on his way to ONE Championship in exchange for Ben Askren.
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported on Wednesday that the deal between the two promotions is being finalized, according to multiple sources.
The trade between the UFC and ONE Championship is a stunner as it represents the first cross-promotion trade of any kind in combat sports history.
Johnson throughout his entire UFC career has been a class act through and through. He even fought the urge to grit his jawline or storm the octagon following what many are calling a controversial split-decision loss to now UFC flyweight title holder Henry Cejudo at UFC 227 back in August.
Cejudo became the first man to not only defeat Demetrious Johnson at the 125-pound limit, he ended Johnson’s historic UFC title defense record at 11.
Thought to have been a monumental upset, in the grand scheme of things, “Mighty Mouse” was soon forgotten right after the loss to Cejudo.
The UFC are kicking a mixed-martial arts legend in Demetrious Johnson while he’s down (literally) by blindsiding him with a trade to a lesser known fight promotion that even with a undefeated star like Ben Askren, has yet to take off.
The audacity by the UFC to continuously under-promote their champions and thus have these champions soon attacked for not being draws when PPV numbers go awry is despicable on the UFC’s part.
If you’re a UFC fan and you’re unsure of when Demetrious Johnson’s next fight will be until the week of, its likely because a man who did all the right things and represented the sport with 100 percent dignity and respect is fighting in the co-main event.
As for his opponents, they’re disrespected themselves given that each of his wins against them were all quickly disparaged and dismissed as the diminutive Johnson once called the bantamweight division his home.
They didn’t have a UFC flyweight division until the UFC saw how embarrassing of a mismatch Dominick Cruz going against Demetrious Johnson was, which was almost like watching David vs Goliath.
That’s not to say Dominick Cruz isn’t a complete badass himself, in fact, he may be the only man right now capable of dethroning UFC bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw, who had been vying for a title fight vs Demetrious Johnson as early as 2017.
Demetrious Johnson (27-3-1, 16-2-1 UFC) is still recovering from a number of injuries suffered at UFC 227 and he may be on the shelf until the first quarter of the 2019.
He’ll have something else to recover from with this latest news that he’ll be traded away from the UFC.
Has another former world champion, soon to be future UFC Hall of Famer (question, will the UFC have the decency to remember him enough to do that?) had to deal with this type of treatment before?
Hopefully one day the absolute truth comes out from Demetrious Johnson himself.
What are your thoughts on the UFC moving on from Demetrious Johnson? Leave your comments below!
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