Johnson deserves some recognition
UFC: First and only flyweight titleholder has a chance to break Anderson Silva’s record for title defences
Records are a part of the fabric of sports. They serve as a way to measure greatness and help put individual performances and overall career achievements into context.
DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Gretzky’s 92 goals and 215 points. Wilt scoring 100 points on the Knicks in 1962. The undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins.
Not only do those marks carry historical significance, but they serve as benchmarks for future generations to target, which is why Cal Ripken playing in his 2,131st consecutive game remains such a big deal and why Mercury Morris gets a shout out every time the final undefeated team in the NFL catches a loss.
It’s why we get excited whenever someone runs their hitting streak up beyond 30 games, marvelled when Kobe Bryant hung 81 on the Toronto Raptors and vividly remember Teemu Selanne shooting his glove out of the air after netting his 54th goal to break Mike Bossy’s rookie record; he’d snipe 76 on the season, a record that should stand for quite some time.
This weekend in Edmonton, Demetrious Johnson has the opportunity to break Anderson Silva’s record for most consecutive successful title defences in the UFC when he defends his flyweight belt against Ray Borg in the main event of UFC 215, but it doesn’t really have the “something special is about to happen” feel I was expecting.
While the UFC has used his pursuit of this record in promoting both this fight and his win over Wilson Reis on FOX in April when he equalled the mark, it seems to me like there are now more people looking to poke holes in Johnson’s record-setting reign atop the flyweight division.
Detractors play down his level of competition, suggesting that because he’s never beaten any previous champions and few challengers with extended histories of success in the cage, it’s hard to consider his accomplishments alongside the illustrious reigns of Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones, the only two other champions to previously get close to equalling the Brazilian’s record.
First and foremost, let’s all agree that no champion has faced a nonstop diet of elite contenders on their way to holding onto their title for an extended period of time. Silva fought Thales Leites and Patrick Cote. St-Pierre defended his belt against Dan Hardy and Josh Koscheck. Jones faced the most consistently dangerous cast of contenders, but still had Chael Sonnen mixed in there as well.
Johnson has indeed faced some lesser-known talents and a couple guys who were hustled into title shots too quickly, but he’s also beaten standouts like Joseph Benavidez, John Dodson, Kyoji Horiguchi and Henry Cejudo, who have posted a combined 25-1 mark in the division outside of their bouts with “Mighty Mouse.”
And the reason he hasn’t been able to face any former champions is because no one else has ever held the UFC flyweight title; he’s the first and only man to wear the belt, another achievement that gets short shrift.
To put Johnson’s impressive reign into perspective, there have been 36 title changes in the other 10 divisions in the UFC since the 31-yearold standout won the title at UFC 152 in Toronto, including eight in the three women’s divisions, all of which came into existence after Johnson ascended to the throne.
For me, this is one of the most important and impressive records in the UFC — a mark established by a fighter universally recognized as one of the greatest to ever compete in the sport.
Johnson breaking Silva’s mark for consecutive successful title defences is akin to Ripken passing Lou Gehrig for most consecutive games played because just as the longtime Baltimore Orioles All-Star didn’t sit out a day or two after passing “The Iron Horse,” the flyweight champion has repeatedly spoken about extending his championship winning streak to 15 straight or more, making it an even more difficult number to record to break in the future.
If the UFC is going to throw up graphics about divisional winning streaks and we’re going to talk at great length about how no heavyweight champion has been able to successfully defend the title more than twice (no pressure, Stipe) in order to hype up fights and generate debate, we have to put greater importance on the truly incredible achievements when they happen.
Just because we didn’t pay a great deal of attention to it when St-Pierre decided to walk away one shy of equalling the mark or as Jones was drawing near before his career went off the rails, that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize the importance of the moment now and start embracing the most significant records in the UFC from this point forward.
Johnson has the potential to make history this weekend — we need to celebrate that, not find ways to explain why it’s not that impressive or pretend it isn’t all that important.
Besides, if defending your title 10 times is so easy, how come only Silva and Johnson have been able to do it?
E. Spencer Kyte covers MMA for The Sun and The Province. Follow him on social media: @spencerkyte.