- Joined
- Mar 2, 2011
- Messages
- 9,310
- Reaction score
- 547
THE DOMINANT CHAMPION
Demetrious Johnson is the most dominant champion in the UFC. He's the longest running champion, with the most title defenses. He's also on the longest ACTIVE win streak in the UFC, at 9 (that rules out Jones and GSP at 12 each).
He's cleaned out his division, having beaten the #1-ranked fighter twice (Benavidez), beaten the #2-ranked fighter twice (Dodson) and sent him up to the Bantamweight division, as well as having beaten fighters currently ranked #4, #6, #7, #10, and #14. He's expected to face the #3-ranked fighter next (Henry Cejudo), and will likely be comfortable betting favorite.
Not only has he beaten all of these fighters, but he's been dominant along the way. It's been over three years since he's been in a particularly competitive fight (vs Dodson in January 2013). Of the 6 fighters he's faced as champion, he's finished 4 of them, KOing Benavidez, and subbing Moraga, Cariaso, and Horiguchi. He won dominant decisions over the 2 fighters he failed to finish, one of whom used EPO for the fight (Bagautinov).
THE LACK OF DRAWING POWER
Despite all of that dominance, he's the lowest drawing of all 10 UFC champions. Adding insult to injury, every single one of the other 9 champions is newly-crowned, having won their belts between December 2014 and January 2016. Demetrious Johnson won his belt in September 2012, has reigned more than two years longer than the next-longest reigning champion Robbie Lawler, and is the only UFC champion in Flyweight history.
UFC 174 | 115,000 PPV buys | $1,140,000 gate in Vancouver, against Bagautinov
UFC 178 | 205,000 PPV buys | $2,200,000 gate in Las Vegas, against Cariaso
UFC 186 | 125,000 PPV buys | $0,680,000 gate in Montreal, against Horiguchi
UFC 191 | 115,000 PPV buys | $1,360,000 gate in Las Vegas, against Dodson II
I'll put these numbers in context...
UFC 174, UFC 186, and UFC 191, are the three lowest drawing PPV's of the modern UFC era, in terms of PPV buys. That's from 2006-present. There's been 129 PPV's held in that time. And Mighty Mouse is responsible for the #127, #128, and #129-ranked PPV's. UFC 177 featuring TJ Dillashaw vs late replacement Joe Soto is the only PPV to have come close to them. Here's a list of some of the PPV's and headliners to have beaten Mighty Mouse:
That's PPV. Let's look at those gate numbers...
The city that the show is held in has a big effect on the gate. Las Vegas typically does big numbers because tickets are more expensive. In Vegas, the UFC holds PPV's at both MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay. MGM Grand has the bigger venue, and thus generally gets the bigger shows and does the better numbers. Both of Johnson's Vegas PPV's were at the MGM Grand. UFC 191 produced the lowest Las Vegas PPV gate of the modern era (2006-present). It did worse than any PPV at Mandalay Bay in that time. There's been exactly 50 UFC PPV's held in Las Vegas since 2006; UFC 191 is #50 on that list, UFC 178 does a bit better at #42, again probably thanks to Conor McGregor and the strong undercard.
Demetrious Johnson's other two PPV shows were both held in Canada. After Vegas, Canada has produced some of the best gate numbers in UFC history. Montreal had produced numbers from as low as $3 million to as high as $5 million. Vancouver had produced 1 gate of around $4.2 million and 1 gate of around $2.8 million. In total, the UFC has held 16 PPV shows in Canada. The #1 show in Canada at the gate was obviously UFC 129 held at the SkyDome, which produced $12 million and still holds the UFC's gate record. The shows from #2 to #14 produced numbers ranging from highs of around $5 million to lows of around $2 million. The #15 show is UFC 174, which produced a $1.14 million gate. The #16 show is UFC 186, which produced a $680k gate. They're clearly the lowest-drawing shows by a long way. The attendance figures are the same: 174 and 186 are also the two lowest-attended Canadian PPV's in history. Even the Fight Night event in Halifax (Rory vs. Saffiedine) beats UFC 186 in both gate and attendance.
THE HOLOHAN PLAN
Yes, "the Holohan plan". In a way, the walls of text above are just setup for my idea of Demetrious Johnson calling out Paddy "The Hooligan" Holohan. Hear me out, though.
Typically, UFC champions make money via PPV points. They take a cut of the PPV buys, the specifics being determined by the fighters' contracts. However, unfortunately for Mighty Mouse, these points are usually only earned if the PPV meets a certain threshold. For example, the PPV might have to do at least 300,000 buys for Johnson to make any money at all from the PPV buys. And obviously, he can't generate those sorts of numbers. As a result, Johnson doesn't have PPV points in his contract.
Demetrious Johnson has spoken about not wanting to trash talk, as that "isn't him". He wants to let his fighting do the talking, and become a star by being as dominant as possible. The problem is, that hasn't happened, it isn't happening, and it's never gonna happen. If he wants to make some big money before he retires, he needs to CHANGE COURSE.
He doesn't have to bullshit to do that. He can still be himself. He just needs to tell the truth. He needs to tell it like it is. He COULD carry on fighting the top contenders. Line them up, and he'll knock them down. But he won't make any money. He should demand a fight with Conor's McGregor's "boy" Paddy Holohan. And he should demand his fight be on a Conor McGregor undercard (get those PPV points back). And he should be honest.
Holohan isn't the top contender. He isn't deserving of a title shot. Right now, he isn't even coming off a win. But Holohan is one thing that Henry Cejudo, Joseph Benavidez III, Ray Borg, Wilson Reis aren't: he is a route to money. He wants to fight Holohan because he wants to get paid. He's proven he can beat the best over and over again, but it doesn't get him paid.
Fights make money just via their association to Conor McGregor. Poirier vs Duffy is the most-watched Fight Pass fight ever, according to the UFC. The Faber/Dillashaw rivalry was partially built on Conor McGregor's season of TUF. Fighters are constantly asked of their opinion of Conor, because he's who everyone cares about and wants to talk about. There's already a connection between McGregor and Johnson, in that they're complimentary of each other. Mighty Mouse is one of the few fighters who Conor speaks highly of (see the UFC 178 post-fight press conference).
The story for the fight could resemble the Apollo/Rocky story. Demetrious Johnson is the dominant champion who's all out of challengers. He wants a plucky underdog to fight; one who the people can get behind. Nobody embodies that type of fighter like Paddy Holohan. He looks and sounds as stereotypically Irish as anyone, and he fights with more heart than everyone. He's the perfect type of fighter to play the underdog role.
Another advantage Holohan would have as a contender is that he's totally different to the other flyweight contenders that Johnson has faced. Every single one of Johnson's 125 opponents are 5ft3 to 5ft6 compact fighters, and are often strikers or wrestlers. Holohan is a lanky, 5ft9 submission fighter. He has half a foot of height on Johnson and is whiter than snow.
Stylistically, Holohan should be an easy fight for Johnson. Holohan does not have the striking or footwork of Johnson, and wouldn't be able to take him down. Johnson should finish him in the first round. Generally, uncompetitive matchups are not good for selling fights. Fans want to see fights where they don't know who's gonna win. However, uncompetitive fights have a positive aspect about them too: the more a fighter is expected to win, the greater the downfall if they lose. That raises the stakes. Johnson HAS to beat this guy.
Mighty Mouse should go one further than that. He should promise a first round finish. He should quote McGregor when making his prediction. Obviously Conor is known for his predictions, and he normally predicts that he'll finish his opponent in the first round. Demetrious should do the same thing. Like I said, he should promise a first round finish. He could even go as far to stipulate that if he doesn't get his first round finish, he'll abandon his title and go up in weight on a quest for the Bantamweight title. Stylistically, Holohan shouldn't be a hard fighter to finish in the first round. Conor's opponents Dennis Siver and Max Holloway both fought extremely defensively, going backwards the whole fight, making a first round finish hard to accomplish. Holohan wouldn't do that. He's gonna go for the win or go out on his shield.
That's not the only way Johnson should emulate McGregor. Before the Poirier and Siver fights, Conor was already looking forward towards the title shot against Aldo. "I won't look past Dennis, I'll look through him". Before the Aldo fight, he was already talking about going after Rafael or Cowboy at Lightweight. And now he's talking about Welterweight too. Demetrious should do the same. He should talk about Holohan as though he's a stepping stone. That only promotes the underdog aspect further. He should set his sights on becoming a 2-weight world champion like Conor, by going for the Bantamweight title immediately after. And finally, he should call out the man himself. He should call out Conor. 3-weight world champion. It doesn't even matter how much of a reality that would be. It doesn't ever have to happen. But he should talk about it as though it's gonna happen. It's just about money.
I know this idea seems totally out of left field. But the UFC had another one of those recently, and it produced one of the shock moments of 2015. Everyone was expecting and assuming we'd see Rousey/Tate III. The UFC were thinking of going that route. But out of nowhere, they said "fuck it, let's do the Holm fight now", and the rest is history. I genuinely see this as a realistic route for Mighty Mouse to potentially make money. And this isn't something that the UFC is above doing; CM Punk & Mickey Gall & Mike Jackson; Chael Sonnen vs Jon Jones for trash talk purposes; Carlos Condit title shot for the purpose of putting on an exciting fight.
Regarding the when's and where's of Johnson/Holohan, I don't know. There was talk of Johnson fighting Cejudo in April. Maybe they should give Holohan an easy fight on that card, setting up Johnson/Holohan for the UFC 200 undercard, underneath Conor McGregor.
Cliff notes
Demetrious Johnson is the most dominant champion in the UFC. He's the longest running champion, with the most title defenses. He's also on the longest ACTIVE win streak in the UFC, at 9 (that rules out Jones and GSP at 12 each).
He's cleaned out his division, having beaten the #1-ranked fighter twice (Benavidez), beaten the #2-ranked fighter twice (Dodson) and sent him up to the Bantamweight division, as well as having beaten fighters currently ranked #4, #6, #7, #10, and #14. He's expected to face the #3-ranked fighter next (Henry Cejudo), and will likely be comfortable betting favorite.
Not only has he beaten all of these fighters, but he's been dominant along the way. It's been over three years since he's been in a particularly competitive fight (vs Dodson in January 2013). Of the 6 fighters he's faced as champion, he's finished 4 of them, KOing Benavidez, and subbing Moraga, Cariaso, and Horiguchi. He won dominant decisions over the 2 fighters he failed to finish, one of whom used EPO for the fight (Bagautinov).
TLDR #1: Demetrious Johnson is the most dominant fighter in the UFC
THE LACK OF DRAWING POWER
Despite all of that dominance, he's the lowest drawing of all 10 UFC champions. Adding insult to injury, every single one of the other 9 champions is newly-crowned, having won their belts between December 2014 and January 2016. Demetrious Johnson won his belt in September 2012, has reigned more than two years longer than the next-longest reigning champion Robbie Lawler, and is the only UFC champion in Flyweight history.
UFC 174 | 115,000 PPV buys | $1,140,000 gate in Vancouver, against Bagautinov
UFC 178 | 205,000 PPV buys | $2,200,000 gate in Las Vegas, against Cariaso
UFC 186 | 125,000 PPV buys | $0,680,000 gate in Montreal, against Horiguchi
UFC 191 | 115,000 PPV buys | $1,360,000 gate in Las Vegas, against Dodson II
I'll put these numbers in context...
UFC 174, UFC 186, and UFC 191, are the three lowest drawing PPV's of the modern UFC era, in terms of PPV buys. That's from 2006-present. There's been 129 PPV's held in that time. And Mighty Mouse is responsible for the #127, #128, and #129-ranked PPV's. UFC 177 featuring TJ Dillashaw vs late replacement Joe Soto is the only PPV to have come close to them. Here's a list of some of the PPV's and headliners to have beaten Mighty Mouse:
- Every single tape-delayed PPV held in Europe. That includes UFC 72 in Belfast (Franklin vs. Okami), UFC 80 in Newcastle (Penn vs. Stevenson), UFC 85 in London (Hughes vs. Alves), UFC 93 in Dublin (Franklin vs. Hendo), and UFC 99 in Cologne (Franklin vs. Wanderlei I). There's also UFC 112 held in Abu Dhabi, but that was a stacked card headlined by both Silva and Penn, so that's hardly a bad thing.
- UFC 161 held in Winnipeg, headlined by Rashad Evans vs Dan Henderson. This is one of the PPV's the UFC holds in-between the Memorial Day weekend show and the Independence Day weekend show. It's a PPV slot that's typically low priority and low-drawing. This show was a particular low priority, headlined by fighters coming off losses, held in the smallest metropolitan area of any UFC PPV in history. Yet it still beat the Mighty Mouse PPV's.
- UFC 147 held in Belo Horizonte, headlined by the Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva rematch. This was held about 1 year before UFC 161, and occupies the same slot on the UFC's PPV calendar. It's a low priority show just like UFC 161. It's also the only Brazilian PPV to not be held in Rio. Yet, it drew more than Mighty Mouse does.
- Every single Jose Aldo fight. People point to Johnson's fighting style and personality to explain his low drawing power. Well, Jose Aldo has been a decision machine in the UFC, is pretty inactive, and doesn't even speak English, let alone have a big personality. Yet, he's clearly a bigger star than Johnson, all of his fights have taken place on PPV, and ALL of them have outdrawn those 3 Mighty Mouse shows on PPV. While Johnson's been on his 9-0 run, Aldo has gone 4-1, with 1 freak injury finish win, 3 competitive decision wins, and one 13-second KO loss.
- UFC 180 is one of the many UFC shows to have suffered as a result of a Cain Velasquez injury. Fabricio Werdum fought Mark Hunt for the interim title, as a replacement headliner, in Mexico City. Neither Werdum nor Hunt are big talkers or proven draws, yet their low-promoted fight in a country with a lack of English-speaking media, did better than Mighty Mouse.
- All other low-drawing PPV headliners in the modern era, including low-drawing champions Frankie Edgar, Dominick Cruz, Benson Henderson, and Renan Barao, and former champions like Big Nog, Frank Mir, BJ Penn, and Shogun.
That's PPV. Let's look at those gate numbers...
The city that the show is held in has a big effect on the gate. Las Vegas typically does big numbers because tickets are more expensive. In Vegas, the UFC holds PPV's at both MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay. MGM Grand has the bigger venue, and thus generally gets the bigger shows and does the better numbers. Both of Johnson's Vegas PPV's were at the MGM Grand. UFC 191 produced the lowest Las Vegas PPV gate of the modern era (2006-present). It did worse than any PPV at Mandalay Bay in that time. There's been exactly 50 UFC PPV's held in Las Vegas since 2006; UFC 191 is #50 on that list, UFC 178 does a bit better at #42, again probably thanks to Conor McGregor and the strong undercard.
Demetrious Johnson's other two PPV shows were both held in Canada. After Vegas, Canada has produced some of the best gate numbers in UFC history. Montreal had produced numbers from as low as $3 million to as high as $5 million. Vancouver had produced 1 gate of around $4.2 million and 1 gate of around $2.8 million. In total, the UFC has held 16 PPV shows in Canada. The #1 show in Canada at the gate was obviously UFC 129 held at the SkyDome, which produced $12 million and still holds the UFC's gate record. The shows from #2 to #14 produced numbers ranging from highs of around $5 million to lows of around $2 million. The #15 show is UFC 174, which produced a $1.14 million gate. The #16 show is UFC 186, which produced a $680k gate. They're clearly the lowest-drawing shows by a long way. The attendance figures are the same: 174 and 186 are also the two lowest-attended Canadian PPV's in history. Even the Fight Night event in Halifax (Rory vs. Saffiedine) beats UFC 186 in both gate and attendance.
TLDR #2: People don't care about Demetrious Johnson
THE HOLOHAN PLAN
Yes, "the Holohan plan". In a way, the walls of text above are just setup for my idea of Demetrious Johnson calling out Paddy "The Hooligan" Holohan. Hear me out, though.
Typically, UFC champions make money via PPV points. They take a cut of the PPV buys, the specifics being determined by the fighters' contracts. However, unfortunately for Mighty Mouse, these points are usually only earned if the PPV meets a certain threshold. For example, the PPV might have to do at least 300,000 buys for Johnson to make any money at all from the PPV buys. And obviously, he can't generate those sorts of numbers. As a result, Johnson doesn't have PPV points in his contract.
Demetrious Johnson has spoken about not wanting to trash talk, as that "isn't him". He wants to let his fighting do the talking, and become a star by being as dominant as possible. The problem is, that hasn't happened, it isn't happening, and it's never gonna happen. If he wants to make some big money before he retires, he needs to CHANGE COURSE.
He doesn't have to bullshit to do that. He can still be himself. He just needs to tell the truth. He needs to tell it like it is. He COULD carry on fighting the top contenders. Line them up, and he'll knock them down. But he won't make any money. He should demand a fight with Conor's McGregor's "boy" Paddy Holohan. And he should demand his fight be on a Conor McGregor undercard (get those PPV points back). And he should be honest.
Holohan isn't the top contender. He isn't deserving of a title shot. Right now, he isn't even coming off a win. But Holohan is one thing that Henry Cejudo, Joseph Benavidez III, Ray Borg, Wilson Reis aren't: he is a route to money. He wants to fight Holohan because he wants to get paid. He's proven he can beat the best over and over again, but it doesn't get him paid.
Fights make money just via their association to Conor McGregor. Poirier vs Duffy is the most-watched Fight Pass fight ever, according to the UFC. The Faber/Dillashaw rivalry was partially built on Conor McGregor's season of TUF. Fighters are constantly asked of their opinion of Conor, because he's who everyone cares about and wants to talk about. There's already a connection between McGregor and Johnson, in that they're complimentary of each other. Mighty Mouse is one of the few fighters who Conor speaks highly of (see the UFC 178 post-fight press conference).
The story for the fight could resemble the Apollo/Rocky story. Demetrious Johnson is the dominant champion who's all out of challengers. He wants a plucky underdog to fight; one who the people can get behind. Nobody embodies that type of fighter like Paddy Holohan. He looks and sounds as stereotypically Irish as anyone, and he fights with more heart than everyone. He's the perfect type of fighter to play the underdog role.
Another advantage Holohan would have as a contender is that he's totally different to the other flyweight contenders that Johnson has faced. Every single one of Johnson's 125 opponents are 5ft3 to 5ft6 compact fighters, and are often strikers or wrestlers. Holohan is a lanky, 5ft9 submission fighter. He has half a foot of height on Johnson and is whiter than snow.
Stylistically, Holohan should be an easy fight for Johnson. Holohan does not have the striking or footwork of Johnson, and wouldn't be able to take him down. Johnson should finish him in the first round. Generally, uncompetitive matchups are not good for selling fights. Fans want to see fights where they don't know who's gonna win. However, uncompetitive fights have a positive aspect about them too: the more a fighter is expected to win, the greater the downfall if they lose. That raises the stakes. Johnson HAS to beat this guy.
Mighty Mouse should go one further than that. He should promise a first round finish. He should quote McGregor when making his prediction. Obviously Conor is known for his predictions, and he normally predicts that he'll finish his opponent in the first round. Demetrious should do the same thing. Like I said, he should promise a first round finish. He could even go as far to stipulate that if he doesn't get his first round finish, he'll abandon his title and go up in weight on a quest for the Bantamweight title. Stylistically, Holohan shouldn't be a hard fighter to finish in the first round. Conor's opponents Dennis Siver and Max Holloway both fought extremely defensively, going backwards the whole fight, making a first round finish hard to accomplish. Holohan wouldn't do that. He's gonna go for the win or go out on his shield.
That's not the only way Johnson should emulate McGregor. Before the Poirier and Siver fights, Conor was already looking forward towards the title shot against Aldo. "I won't look past Dennis, I'll look through him". Before the Aldo fight, he was already talking about going after Rafael or Cowboy at Lightweight. And now he's talking about Welterweight too. Demetrious should do the same. He should talk about Holohan as though he's a stepping stone. That only promotes the underdog aspect further. He should set his sights on becoming a 2-weight world champion like Conor, by going for the Bantamweight title immediately after. And finally, he should call out the man himself. He should call out Conor. 3-weight world champion. It doesn't even matter how much of a reality that would be. It doesn't ever have to happen. But he should talk about it as though it's gonna happen. It's just about money.
I know this idea seems totally out of left field. But the UFC had another one of those recently, and it produced one of the shock moments of 2015. Everyone was expecting and assuming we'd see Rousey/Tate III. The UFC were thinking of going that route. But out of nowhere, they said "fuck it, let's do the Holm fight now", and the rest is history. I genuinely see this as a realistic route for Mighty Mouse to potentially make money. And this isn't something that the UFC is above doing; CM Punk & Mickey Gall & Mike Jackson; Chael Sonnen vs Jon Jones for trash talk purposes; Carlos Condit title shot for the purpose of putting on an exciting fight.
Regarding the when's and where's of Johnson/Holohan, I don't know. There was talk of Johnson fighting Cejudo in April. Maybe they should give Holohan an easy fight on that card, setting up Johnson/Holohan for the UFC 200 undercard, underneath Conor McGregor.
TLDR #3: Demetrious Johnson should fight Paddy Holohan
Cliff notes
- Demetrious Johnson is the most dominant, yet least popular, champion in the UFC
- He should fight Paddy Holohan
- ???
- Profit
Last edited:
