Johnson will face Reis in April. (Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC)
UFC's most dominant current champion, Demetrious Johnson will try to maintain his reign against Wilson reis at UFC on Fox 24, April 15, in Kansas City (USA). Unlike most current champions, the flyweight left the provocations aside and praised the qualities of his next opponent.
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“Wilson has been fighting longer than me, he fought in the featherweight and bantamweight divisions, and now he's in the flyweight division. I would say he is fighting more at his normal weight now. He's a tough guy, he likes to put pressure on his opponent, he's a great wrestler, he's a grappler, and I'm going to try to go out there and make sure I take that to him”, declared DJ, in an interview with UFC news.
Although the fight was only announced last Saturday (04), during UFC 209, Demetrious guarantees that he was already aware of the fight well before the organization announced it, and that's why he started training three weeks ago.
“It was the right time. The UFC, IMG (the group that owns Ultimate), they like to announce fights before because it's better than after. Normally, they don't announce it until two, three months away, but I already knew I was going to fight on April 15th. I was trying to fight on May 13th, but we couldn't. It will be the event in which the Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Jessica Andrade they will fight. But April 15th will be perfect, I've already been training for three weeks to make sure I'll be in shape if they give the go-ahead for this fight.
Asked about the possibility of achieving the record for title defenses, Anderson Silva, who is ten, Demetrious, who is nine, made no point of hiding that this is a personal desire. For him, it's not enough to just become champion, but to stay at the top for a long reign.
"It's very important. I think it’s important for any world champion (…). A Joanna Jedrzejczyk will defend his belt for the third or fourth time (actually five). It's always good to win the belt, but after that you need to defend it, defend it, defend it. So it’s very important”, concluded the champion.
Demetrious Johnson, 30 years old, is the first and only UFC flyweight champion. He won the title by defeating Joseph Benavidez at UFC 152, in September 2012. Since then, he has defeated all nine opponents he has faced, the last of them (Tim Elliott) in December 2016, at TUF Finale 24. In total, DJ has 25 wins, two losses and one draw on his professional record.
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