TJ Dillashaw on Demetrious Johnson outcry: it all comes down to him being scared of me beating him

Yesterday morning, dominant UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson made waves by releasing a lengthy, anti-UFC statement, blasting the organization and its head-honcho Dana White for bullying him, and for trying to force him into a fight with former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw (read that statement here).

Now a day removed from Johnson’s passionate address, Dillashaw has issued a response. As a member of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association, which strives to improve treatment of fighters, one might expect Dillashaw to sympathize with Johnson. Apparently, however, the former bantamweight champion doesn’t have much sympathy to give.

Dillashaw’s first response to Dillashaw occurred on Instagram.

Mini Mouse or Mighty Mouse? Don’t be scared! This is the fight game, I’ve takin title fights on 24hrs notice. I’m already waking up at 143lbs, on my way down to put a squash to this hype. You want to call yourself the Goat then what do you have to be afraid of?! @mightymouse125

A post shared by tjdillashaw (@tjdillashaw) on Jun 5, 2017 at 2:47pm PDT

Shortly after making this post on Instagram, Dillashaw spoke with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto to elaborate.

“I understand where he’s coming from with some of it but a lot of it was a slap in the face to me as well,” said Dillashaw. “Trying to say that I don’t really deserve a title shot which I think is complete bullcrap. I don’t think there’s anybody in his weight class right now to push him and I’m healthy, I’m in shape, I’m already in the process – because Dana told me that’s who I’m fighting – of dropping the weight class. I’m waking up at 143 pounds in the morning so that’s a very, very reachable goal.

“So for him to go and discredit my name and the things that I’ve accomplished just to not be worthy of a title shot kind of pissed me off a little bit. And it’s kind of embarrassing to have him go and call himself the GOAT, to be the greatest of all time and turning down fights because he’s scared to fight. He can say whatever he wants to say about all his other issues he has and being bullied – which, I don’t understand how the greatest of all time gets bullied – but it all comes down to him being scared of me beating him. He knows that I’m a bad matchup for him and that it’s a fight that he does not want.”

What do you make of this drama involving Demetrious Johnson, TJ Dillashaw, and the UFC?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/5/2017.