Demetrious Johnson doesn’t care about being above Conor McGregor on the pound-for-pound list

By Tom Taylor - November 30, 2016

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson have been neck-and-neck atop MMA’s pound-for-pound list for years. Now that Jon Jones is out of competition with a suspension, however, there is little denying that Mighty Mouse is MMA’s pound-for-pound king.

Demetrious Johnson

According to Mighty Mouse, however, being the pound-for-pound best doesn’t mean all that much. In a recent interview with Fox Sports, Mighty Mouse addressed his place atop this speculative list.

“There was one point at time I was the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Jon Jones hadn’t fought in eight or nine months, [and then] he got reinstated and blew right past me and not one thing in my life changed. Not one single thing,” Johnson said.

“Still woke up, took a sh*t, wiped my ass, poop on the toilet paper looked exactly the same, went to the gym, trained, sweat still came out the same. I think [pound-for-pound rankings] are more for the fan’s perspective.”

Demetrious Mighty Mouse Johnson

The only way pound-for-pound rankings will become meaningful to him, Mighty Mouse continued, is if they start to imply a pay-boost.

“Unless the UFC was like, ‘if you’re the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world you get an extra $40,000 bonus check every year,’ then I’ll start coming out of the woodwork and say, ‘yeah I’m the number one fighter in the world and the reason why is [Conor McGregor] just got f*cking choked out by Nate Diaz and you mismanaged your energy output’,” Johnson said, explaining why he believes he sits above McGregor on the pound-for-pound list. 

“Having that number one spot is basically just bragging rights and I’m not a bragger,” Mighty Mouse continued. “I just go out there and fight. If there was money involved and it was guaranteed if I had that number one spot, yeah, I would fight for it, but there isn’t.”

“So if Conor ever wants to say anything about [being the pound-for-pound best], talk about me and say this and that, whatever, that’s totally fine. I’m not going to waste the energy on it.”

Do you consider Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson the best pound-for-pound fighter on earth? Sound off, PENN Nation!

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM


Topics:

Conor McGregor Demetrious Johnson