DEMETRIOUS JOHNSON
Why do you want to move up to
135lbs and rematch Dominick Cruz?
We’ve always wanted to fight Dominick
Cruz again. Not because there was
some bad blood or because I lost to
him — well a little bit because I lost to
him — but at the same time, he was the
uncrowned champ. He had never lost
as a champion; they stripped him of his
belt from his injury.
And I felt that the first fight we had, it
was a rough fight for me, but I feel like I
gave him his best fight to date, just trying
to push him — other than TJ. TJ did
an amazing job as well, but at the same
time, it’s something on the back burner.
Everybody’s been talking about super-
fights. You’ve got RDA [Rafael dos Anjos]
taking on Conor McGregor, Conor
McGregor trying to make history, getting
two belts. And I think for me and my
team — Matt Hume and AMC — we
would love to try to become a two-weight
world champion. But at the same time,
the money’s gotta be right, the stars have
got to align.
First things first, I got to make sure I
can keep my belt and break Anderson
Silva’s title defence record. And then
after that, when I’ve done that and
I have more marketing power and
marketability and everyone’s loving
me, then I’ll be like, ‘You know, I beat
Anderson Silva’s record, now it’s time
to go beat Conor McGregor’s record. He
didn’t become a two-weight champion,
he lost to RDA. I’m going to see if I
can do it by Dominick Cruz.’ And by
any means it will not be an easy fight.
Dominick Cruz is an absolute beast.
Cruz said he could beat you again
just as he did the first time. What
do you think of that? Does it
motivate you?
No, I don’t need any motivation. I don’t
need an opponent to say, ‘Oh I can
beat you’ to motivate me. When I get
the contract and it’s in my lap and I’m
like, ‘Ok, let’s sign on the dot, let’s make
this happen.’ That’s all the motivation
I need.
I have a family and I provide for
them. And as a competitor, I’m a
very competitive person and I want
to leave a pretty sweet legacy behind
me. So no motivation, anybody can
talk trash about me. People in the
past have before we fought and it has
never changed the way I go about
training. I just go in there with a clear
mind and think that I’m going to
go in there and beat this person and
that’s it.
So what do you think would be
different if you had a rematch
with Cruz?
The biggest thing is that I’ve felt his
footwork before; I’ve felt his range
before. I know his recipe to beat me.
And it’s no secret, he’s a bigger dude
than me, he has longer range, his
footwork is good. And the hardest
thing is — when you saw the fight
between TJ and Dom, when TJ would
chase Dom — when somebody’s 5’9”
and I’m 5’3”, and if he stands up tall
and backs up, I can’t get to his head.
So it’s a hard thing.
Dom’s a hard person to fight because
he’s tall and he’s long and he uses a
lot of footwork. So half the time whenyou saw TJ and him fighting, TJ kept
throwing that high kick and the high
kick would land, but by the time it gets
to Dominick Cruz’s neck it’s lost all its
juice. Dom was backing up, pulling
away, and he’s also the taller fighter. So
it’s a tough fight.
But like I said, the difference
would be that I’ve been there before,
I typically do better in my rematches,
but I always have to worry that Dom
is a bigger dude, he’s longer and he
can wrestle. And like I said, when I
mean he’s a bigger dude, I woke up
the other day weighing 139.5lbs —
and I was eating whatever I want.
So that just shows you that it’s only
a four-pound cut for me — whereasJohnson tangles with Ian McCall54 | FIGHT AUSTRALIA fightaustralia.com.au