Pettis couldn’t stay at Flw. He can’t make it anymore can he?
Cejudo was also lucky as he got a debatable decision against DJ before they kicked DJ out. Not sure why DJ wasn’t willing to face TJ though which Cejudo did.
As soon as I saw the name Nobuyuki Sakakibara, I stopped reading. He burned Dana and the UFC pretty bad before by not honoring the deal to send pride fighters over after Zuffa sent guys to Japan. That was really one of the driving factors that started Zuffa down the iron clad exclusive contracts and no co-promotion road. Dana has not forgotten what Sakakibara did, so don’t see this panning out
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Does anyone know what actually happened in those negotiations?
Yeah Pettis was one of those guys who just outgrew the weight as he matured and got stronger. Just looked, he went back and forth between FLW and BW like 7x in his career before settling at BW once he signed with Bellator.
DJ was very willing to fight Dillashaw, its just at the time that fight was on the table Dillashaw was not considering dropping to FLW, UFC wanted Johnson to do a champ vs champ fight at BW and Johnson felt he deserved monetary compensation for moving back to BW to make the big fight and UFC was not willing to budge on that and give him the money he wanted to do that.
Without knowing the situation, you can see both sides as UFC was not happy with the revenue Johnson was bringing in and Johnson was not happy with his compensation.
Hell, UFC headlined three PPV’s with Johnson and were so unhappy with the ROI that they had to stick him in the co-main on a Jones PPV and then for his next PPV they had to have him as the co-main of an interim title fight headliner with Tony and Lee.
Its just a damn shame really, I mean, Johnson has only had 6 MMA fights since leaving UFC and three of them were vs the same fighter.
It would have been a lot of fun to see if he could beat Cejudo in the 3rd fight and also defend vs Dillashaw, Figueiredo, Moreno, Pantoja etc…as time went on.
Even with the controversial loss to Cejudo, its possible he could have won the belt back and reached 20 UFC title defenses, we will never know what could have been.
Johnson is 37 now though and not returning to UFC, Horiguchi is only 33 and is still young enough there is a great chance he wins the UFC FLW title before he retires.
If Horiguchi does win the UFC belt that would make him a Shooto/RIZIN and UFC FLW champ as well as a Bellator and RIZIN BW champ and RIZIN BW GP and Shooto Rookie Tournament champ. Talk about decorated.
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Funny enough just saw DJ address the TJ situation on the Rampage podcast pretty much as you said.
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Lineker and Dodson are two other still competing fighters who the UFC FLW division lost.
So yeah, that division lost the champ Johnson plus Horiguchi, Ogikubo, Cejudo, Pettis, Lineker, Dodson, Formiga, Askarov and now Figueiredo.
Not sure who UFC is gonna have Pantoja defend vs at 301 but UFC better hope they don’t move up to BW or go to ONE, RIZIN, ACA or Bellator before May because the trend is not their friend.
Problem is don’t think most (casuals and many hardcores) fans care about the div.
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Yeah I know, I’m just highlighting why its so hard to care about the division. Its easily my least favorite male division and I only like it more than all the female divisions.
Once it lost all those guys it was just hard to want to follow outside the title fights and top five who were left.
Part of what makes Pantoja’s next title fight so uninteresting is because its not gonna involve Askarov or Fig who already beat him and moved up or left or Johnson and Horiguchi who left.
So sure he is champ but the division is not what it could be.
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Good points still for sure.
UFC also missed another opportunity to highlight Pantjoja’s life path to the title. He also fights like a maniac and so far that hasn’t changed as a champ. That should be sellable too.
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Yeah I think they have Pereira headline 301 and have Pantoja co-headline.
I just noticed today, Pantoja is on a short list of UFC champs and top fighters with Jones, Khabib, Phil Davis etc… as a elite fighter with 20+ fights who has never been finished.
Its a really short list.