Why is Demetrious Johnson not in the GOAT conversation?

While there is no question that Demetrious Johnson was a phenomenal fighter–his flying armbar finish of Ray Borg is one of the greatest moments in MMA history–there are a few things working against him when it comes to being in the pound-for-pound GOAT conversation. 

1). Johnson fought the majority of his career in the flyweight division which was, by far, the weakest MMA weight class while he was active. The competition was so watered down during Johnson’s run in the UFC that the company planned to eliminate it until the Brandon Moreno-Deiveson Figueiredo quadrilogy saved it. In fact, the UFC took the unprecedented step of trading Johnson to another organization because of how weak the division was.

2). Johnson spent the last four years of his career fighting in ONE where he didn’t face a single fighter with even one fight in the UFC.

3). Johnson never faced Moreno, Figueiredo, or Alexandre Pantoja, who were the best flyweights during Johnson’s career aside from Henry Cejudo.

4). Not only did Johnson not face Pantoja, Moreno, and Figueiredo, he didn’t beat a single fighter who has a victory over them, which not only underscores how relatively weak Johnson’s fight schedule was, but also how weak the resumes of the fighter’s Johnson defeated were. 

5). Johnson lost to the two biggest names that he fought: Dominick Cruz and Henry Cejudo.

6). Johnson started off as a bantamweight and moved to the easier flyweight division after getting outclassed by Cruz. Had he stayed in the bantamweight division, he would’ve had a number of marquee opponents like Cruz (again), Aljamain Sterling, Merab Dvalishvili, Petr Yan, TJ Dillashaw, Sean O’Malley, and Jose Aldo. Johnson not only missed out on facing the murderer’s row at bantamweight, but having also not faced Moreno, Figueiredo, and Pantoja at flyweight means that he didn’t face the top competition in either division. 

7). As of the September 10, 2024 rankings, Johnson had zero wins over the top 15 ranked UFC flyweights and 0 wins over the top 35 ranked flyweights in ANY company according to Tapology’s flyweight rankings. 

8). Johnson’s knockout loss to Adriano Moraes and draw against Ian McCall are results that very few fighters in the GOAT conversation have, if any.     

Mighty Mouse gets a lot of love–and he deserves a lot of love–but it’s hard to overlook the fact that he lost to the two best opponents he faced, faced a schedule absent of many of the best fighters in the world, and fought in the weakest division in MMA. It would be disrespectful to the heavier weight classes to ignore the huge drop-off in the competition level at flyweight. The elite fighters from those divisions faced a gauntlet that Johnson never did. Even still, I have him rated well ahead of Moreno, Figueiredo, and Pantoja, and slightly ahead of Cejudo. It’s not unreasonable to call him the flyweight GOAT, but how would he have fared against the true killers of the flyweight division? We’ll never know. 

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

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P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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