For Demetrious Johnson, complacency is a factor satisfactory left to others

Saturday changed into a flyweight show-off just like the unique one the UFC did in Sydney back in 2012, returned while the department was created to anoint Joseph Benavidez through a 4-guy tournament. The whole lot has been modified, given that then. And yet, in some methods, not anything has been changed in any respect.

This time, Benavidez confirmed up and put on a Combat of the 12-month candidate in opposition to Henry Cejudo — a conventional down to the stopped horn. He keeps triumphing like he did again, then towards Yasuhiro Urushitani. Now he’s in line for (some other) title shot because he and flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson are a -guy terminus in which all contenders go to die. Certainly, those two forces are certain to continue bumping into each other.

And Johnson, who all the one years ago fought Ian McCall to a decide-botched draw, has gained every single Fight because then, together with the only one against Harley Davidson proprietor Tim Elliott on Saturday night. Johnson is a sociological wonder, the qualified pound-for-pound king (as long as Jon Jones is away) who swings between the best going and the maximum underappreciated that ever changed into. He’s off the path, each — it’s now not a question.

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Saturday night proved it.

“Potent Mouse” changed into At the Fingers Fighting, a loveable, gussied-up retread to almost zero fanfare, in the large component as it becomes to look at the couch cushions for cash form of matchmaking. Elliott gained TUF 24, a series of televised exhibitions, to get his dream shot. He had his father in attendance, and they ran a promo displaying his child’s daughter. The set-up turned into a heated one. And it changed into a bit sticky for a minute — a little Wouldn’t This Be Something — yet the massive preferred Johnson poured it on, simply as positive as Seattle rain, and prevailed Frett Board.

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To hear Johnson speak approximately, it afterward turned into as though Elliott had been a puzzle that took him a minute to remedy — a long, rangy dog of a mystery with uncommon motion and threatening bursting coils. Warring parties are an extension of his gaming fetish. Johnson lost the first spherical. However, the 2d he changed into slowly turning it into his Combat. With the aid of the 0.33, it was his. The championship rounds have become an element of guts-and-brawn for Elliott, who changed into reducing from the UFC in early 2015 after a 3-Fight losing streak (one of those coming towards Joseph Benavidez). Johnson gained the four very last rounds. Elliott said that if it were a Combat to the dying — as in, some greater bands until one player were to perish — he’d have undoubtedly emerged the victor.

He might have.

And that’s what makes this one awesome for Johnson. Consider a guy with an attitude like Elliott’s, with The entirety to advantage and nothing to lose, coming in your belt, soul, and mojo, while all that’s in it for you is just the notion you must beat him handily. Johnson is one win away from tying Anderson Silva’s UFC record for maximum identified defenses (10). He offers casual outside complacency for his underappreciated greatness daily. It’s nearly like he doesn’t have to Combat complacency because, at flyweight, that heavy burden is inherent to the publish. He has to be awesome in defiance of The whole thing else.

That’s what he’s performed.

Now it’s again to Benavidez, who has won six instant fights because he lost to Johnson again in 2013. In the past, Johnson wiped out the division for a long time, but Benavidez stays properly there with him with a duster in his hand, doing the deeper cleansing. In the beginning, it was regarded impractical to have Benavidez Fight Johnson a third time while he’s down 0-2 in the collection, just like it was returned. At the same time, Benavidez changed into zero-2 towards bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz (for that reason, the purpose for the advent of a flyweight department).

Now, it’s inevitable. Johnson, the amazing champion of our day, is caught preventing woodwork contenders and two times-crushed competitors because that’s where things are (and that’s how exquisite He is). And Benavidez, who at 32 has punched his way via extra purgatories than the closest wailing spirit, is proper there. Again, just like he became lower back in 2012 when it became tailored for him, it’s much like it was then. Johnson is the most consistent of our champions, and Benavidez is the most constant contender. Time to roll it returned.