Demetrious Johnson had high praise for a man revolutionising Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, claiming he is an even better promoter than Dana White.
‘Mighty Mouse’ is widely considered the greatest UFC fighter of all time, despite the fact that he was only truly appreciated after leaving for ONE Championship in a trade for Ben Askren. During his time in the UFC, he struggled to have major money fights and never made a seven-figure base purse.
Now, he has built an even bigger following with his ‘Mighty’ YouTube channel where he trains fighters, provides analysis and this week hosted a debate between Craig Jones and Mikey Musumeci regarding exclusivity in Jiu-Jitsu.
Demetrious Johnson claims Craig Jones is ‘better promoter than Dana White’
During a debate between Craig Jones and Mikey Musumeci over a number of issues in the BJJ community, Demetrious Johnson admitted how impressed he was with the Australian’s success in promoting.
Over this weekend, Jones has been promoting the self-title Craig Jones Invitational, where he will tonight compete with Chael Sonnen in a super-fight. The show is free-to-air on YouTube, and the grappling legend admits that he ‘tricks’ viewers to watch high level grappling with his antics in promotion.
Johnson recalled a story of filming a commercial for one of his UFC fights with Henry Cejudo, which was scrapped when headliner Jon Jones was involved in a controversy that cost him his fight.
“They could have used it, turned it, done different things to be able to market me,” Johnson explained. “But they don’t do it and it’s funny now when you look at how you have the promoter, then you have the athlete.
“It’s the promoter’s job to promote the athlete’s fight but nowadays they throw it more on the athlete to promote the event.” When Jones noted that it wasn’t that way at CJI, Johnson replied: “You’re a better promoter than Dana White, you’re killing it.”
Dana White infamously told Demetrious Johnson he wasn’t the best fighter in UFC
Back in 2017, Johnson was at the top of his game, but couldn’t sell tickets or pay-per-views due to the lack of depth in the flyweight division. There were plans for him to move up to fight bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw, but wanted to be finally paid $1million which the promotion refused.
And in a chat with Israel Adesanya on his Freestylebender YouTube channel, he recalled the time White insisted he was not only not the best fighter, but was lower ranked than Conor McGregor. The Irishman had just lost to Floyd Mayweather by KO in a boxing match, and a year prior was tapped by Nate Diaz.
“Dana White, I’ll never forget,” Johnson began. “We’re at a Snoop Dogg concert. It’s me, Dana White, we’re talking. He’s drinking Bud Light. And I’m sitting there just chilling. And he goes, ‘you know what? You’re not the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world’.
“And I was like, okay. He goes, ‘you know who is?’ I was like, who? He was like, ‘Conor McGregor… You know why? Because he would fight anybody…’ I was like, guy just got f—— knocked out, what are you talking about?
“I think he was trying to negotiate, trying to get me to go up and fight TJ [Dillashaw]. And I was like, oh, just pay me a million dollars… But I respect the fact that he told me that in my face.”