MightyCast<\/a> show, Johnson criticized the booking, questioning why Lopes was given the shot over the undefeated Lerone Murphy.<\/p>\n\u201cI want to reiterate and I want to stress this enough: Me having my thoughts and wondering why Diego got it over Lerone Murphy is not me talking shit or me being upset, it\u2019s me questioning the thought process behind the matchmakers,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s me questioning the legitimacy of the sport of mixed martial arts. Usually when an athlete is on win streak, he has the highest win streak in the division, he should be the No. 1 contender, right? Was Jean Silva the No. 1 contender? Was that a No. 1 contendership spot when Diego Lopes and Jean Silva fought? I\u2019m not sure. Jean Silva was on a win streak as well, so if he would beat Diego Lopes, would that have got him a fight?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in today\u2019s mixed martial arts, people are getting rewarded a title shot\u2014which is the most prestigious title you can have in mixed martial arts is a title shot, obviously\u2014people are getting this prestigious opportunity after winning one fight. Now, I want you guys to sit down and think with me. You had your opportunity to fight for the belt. You list. It was 4-1, I think everybody feels comfortable saying that. I felt Alex Volkanovski won that fight in dominant fashion. Then Diego Lopes goes off and beats Jean Silva. He gets rocked there, it was a back-and-forth fight, it was a war. It\u2019s one fight and he gets the opportunity to have another title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopes has risen rapidly in popularity since making his UFC debut in May 2023, when he stepped in on short-notice to face the undefeated Movsar Evloev and lost a competitive decision. He strung together five straight wins to earn his first title opportunity and though he fell short against Volkanovski, Lopes has earned a reputation for exciting fights and has large following in Mexico, where he lives and trains.<\/p>\n
Johnson understands why Lopes is a company favorite, but wishes the UFC was willing to be more transparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, is it because [Lopes is] very popular?\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIs it because he sells a lot of tickets? I don\u2019t know. But are we doing this for popularity or are we doing this because somebody\u2019s better? That\u2019s where I like to question the legitimacy of this thing we call a sport. And that\u2019s why I always say on a hot take, it\u2019s not a sport. It\u2019s pick and choose and I\u2019m going to push this athlete because he has a market that I want to infiltrate. He has a market that we have not been able to get out footing, our roots in, and we\u2019re not really worried about that. That\u2019s fine, just let me know that.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet the public know that because for the fans out there who spend every waking moment on there, they just want to understand the questioning of the machine. But at the same time, maybe it\u2019s not our place to question the machine, maybe it\u2019s our place just to sit here and enjoy the fights that the UFC are putting on, not have a rebuttal like, \u2018That\u2019s not how that should go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy\u2019s snub was particularly confusing given the British veteran\u2019s impressive run of form. This past August, Murphy scored an incredible first-round knockout against former Bellator star Aaron Pico to extend his win streak to nine and improve to 17-0-1 as a pro.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear why Murphy was passed over and Johnson would like to know if Murphy\u2019s unbeaten streak wasn\u2019t considered\u2014or worse, not noticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as a fan of the sport or the entertainment value or organization, it almost kind of rubs me\u2014not rubs me the wrong way, but a lot of people just don\u2019t understand the thinking of it,\u201d Johnson said to Murphy, who was a guest on his show. \u201cBut then sometimes I sit here and think, should we be able to understand what they\u2019re doing? When you look at somebody with your record and what you\u2019ve been able to do in your career in the UFC, it\u2019s almost like it doesn\u2019t give it any substance. It\u2019s almost like, OK, does that mean anything? Does that win streak mean anything?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demetrious Johnson can\u2019t wrap his head around the UFC\u2019s decision-making when it comes to the featherweight title. At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-387465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}