The greatest flyweight fighter of all time, Demetrious Johnson, has criticized Alexandre Pantoja’s performance at UFC 301, highlighting who he thinks ‘can beat’ the champion.
This past Saturday at UFC 301 in Rio de Janeiro, Alexandre Pantoja successfully defended his flyweight title for the second time, narrowly beating unexpected contender, Steve Erceg.
‘Astroboy’ Erceg was given the title shot following an emphatic knockout over Matt Schnell just two months prior, highlighting his quick rise during his 11-month UFC tenure.
Someone the 28-year-old was favored over for the title shot, was Muhammad Mokaev, and although Mokaev has six wins in a row at 125lbs, he was unable to impress the UFC brass with his last performance.
Demetrious Johnson believes Muhammad Mokaev ‘can beat’ Alexandre Pantoja
Mokaev’s last fight came on the same card that Erceg knocked out Schnell, where he picked up a unanimous decision win over Alex Perez.
‘The Punisher’ has hinted on social media recently that he has a fight booked for UFC 304, when the promotion returns to Manchester, UK, on July 27th.
Although Mokaev was overlooked this time round, he could make himself undeniable with a win on July 27th. Former UFC flyweight king, Demetrious Johnson, believes the 23-year-old has what it takes to dethrone the Brazilian champion.
“That’s the problem with the flyweight division, there’s not a lot of athletes there.” Johnson claimed on his YouTube channel.
“You have (Muhammad) Mokaev who’s (probably) next. I think Mokaev can beat Alexandre Pantoja because, one he’s good on his feet, and two he has a better wrestling background.
“I think he will be better (than Erceg) about not making the decision of like, hey I can beat Pantoja on the feet, I don’t need to take him down, so we just need to make sure we get close to each other, you’ve got to make sure you don’t let him take you down.” Johnson added.
‘Mightymouse’ critical of Alexandre Pantoja’s UFC 301 performance
The UFC 301 main event was 2-2 heading into the final round on two of the judges’ scorecards and after Erceg won the exchanges in the first half of the round, it seemed as though a new champion was going to be crowned in Rio.
Despite that, the 28-year-old made a detrimental mistake by shooting for a takedown midway through the round, which was reversed by ‘The Cannibal’. ‘Mightymouse’, though, was more critical of Pantoja’s performance than he was about Erceg’s.
“I feel Pantoja cuts too much weight.” Demetrious Johnson claimed. “When I look at the past champions, I look at (Deiveson) Figueiredo, an amazing champion, powerful, great athleticism.
“When I look at Henry Cejudo he would move so good, he was finishing people. I look at myself I was moving and finishing people. Then when I look at Pantoja it’s almost like he’s (just) getting through the fights, he’s not excelling through fights.” Johnson admitted.
The Brazilian crowd came under a bit of criticism following the fight, especially from the champion, Pantoja, who was pleading with them to stick around to hear his post-fight speech.
Johnson puts the blame on the UFC for not marketing the fight well enough and making it hard for the 34-year-old champion to earn more money through pay-per-view points.
“How do you expect a flyweight to make PPV points because if this card didn’t do over 200,000 buys, he ain’t getting s***. He’s going to get his base pay and that’s about it, it’s a very interesting thing.” DJ finished.