Demetrious Johnson Only Plans to Fight Two Times in 2018

What Demetrious Johnson has done is hard. Like, very hard. Look at all the titles that changed hands in 2017. Of course, Mighty Mouse wasn’t one of them. He hasn’t ever been one of them. For six years he hasn’t been beaten, collecting a history-making number of title defenses and surpassing Anderson Silva in the process. It’s one of the reasons he may be slowing down a little bit coming into 2018. The UFC flyweight champion only plans to defend his title twice this year.

“That’s the plan, this year two fights. There comes a point in time, I was looking at my Wikipedia page and there were times where I fought four times in one year, I defended the belt three times in one year, got surgery between those title defenses. I think it’s safe to say that my goal is to get two title defenses this year and we will go from there. I’ll try to stay healthy and we will see then. […] You see champions all the time, they get the belt, then they go on a two-fight win streak and lose it. To be able to defend the belt from 2012 to 2017 and hopefully defend two more times in 2018, it’s extremely freaking hard.”

Re-live historic #UFC216 in glorious slow-mo 👀 pic.twitter.com/xdHcNxzIkb

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) October 11, 2017

“That’s why there are a only of couple people who have done it: [Georges St-Pierre], Jon Jones, Jose Aldo, me, and Anderson Silva. That’s five guys right there in the span I have been a champion.  I always chuckle because I remember there was a time when Chris Weidman was champion, Jose was champion, Frankie [Edgar] was champion, [Renan] Barao was champion and even TJ [Dillashaw] became champion. Dominick Cruz was champion, they’re not anymore. I am still sitting here on my throne. You see it over time even Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate, and it’s kind of like, damn, it’s good sh-t I guess.” — Demetrious Johnson speaking on The MMA Hour.

Everyone is hoping that one of these two fights are going to be against UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw. We all thought the fight was closer than ever, but the champ has come out and denied the fight news that ‘leaked’ from a UFC 219 Twitch stream. Regardless of opponent, everyone will be watching Demetrious Johnson to see if can hold his standing as the UFC’s most dominant champion of all-time. …And to see if he pulls off any crazy video game moves inside the Octagon again.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/3/2018.