John Dodson Says It’s a ‘Horrible’ Idea for the UFC to Get Rid of the Flyweight Division
John Dodson will never compete at 125 pounds again but he still has a lot of love for his old weight class.
That’s just part of the reason the former two-time title contender has such a problem with the UFC likely getting rid of the flyweight division in the near future.
While UFC president Dana White has continuously pushed back any declaration about his plans for the division, many of the top fighters in the 125-pound weight class have either been released off losses or not re-signed when it came time to renew a contract.
Add to that, White has said he’s interested in current flyweight champion Henry Cejudo moving up to face bantamweight king T.J. Dillashaw after the Olympic gold medalist knocked him out in their 125-pound contest in January.
It all seems to point to the inevitable end of the flyweight division and that definitely doesn’t sit well with Dodson.
“That’s a horrible thing. All these dudes have jobs and they want to go out there and perform for the best and put on a super high show so everyone can see them on the pay-per-view stage and they’re just going to get rid of it,” Dodson said ahead of his next fight in Prague on Saturday.
“If that’s the case, get rid of heavyweight. Heavyweights only throw one or two punches throughout the whole fight and they’re praying that one of them lands. At least with flyweight, they’re going back and forth and changing the angles, using the whole array of MMA whether that’s wrestling, grappling, striking, and just mixing it up very well. They are high caliber fighters and everyone keeps disregarding it because looking at them it’s like ‘oh that’s a women’s weight class’ and that’s a sh—ty feeling for anybody. Because they’re more talented, more skilled and pretty much they’re gifted athletes. The only thing you have to be for heavyweight is just strong.”
The most frustrating part about the current state of the flyweight division is that there is finally a new, marketable champion after Demetrious Johnson ran roughshod over everybody at 125 pounds for years.
With Cejudo now holding the title with wins over Johnson and Dillashaw at flyweight, Dodson believes the division has a champion who could be promoted with a list of challengers lining up to face him.
Instead, it seems the UFC is just abandoning all hope for the flyweight division unless something changes dramatically later this year.
“Now you can build the whole division around one guy cause everybody is going to be gunning for him to see how well he can do and stay on top,” Dodson said about Cejudo “He knocked out TJ [Dillashaw], which everyone keeps saying ‘he’s the best bantamweight champion that the UFC’s ever had’ and he just straight up got destroyed by a flyweight.”
