Bantamweight contender Demetrious Johnson took part today in the open workouts today promoting his fight for the UFC bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz at UFC on Versus 6. 'Mighty Mouse' and I discussed a number of topics, not least of which was his fight against Miguel Torres. That's arguably the same fight and victory that earned him the title shot he's getting in October.
Most notably, Johnson states if you evaluate the grappling portion of his bout with Torres, one supporters of Torres contend should have made Torres the rightful victor, and judge them according to the rules employed in the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championships, he arithmetically defeats Johnson on points.
I've heard this argument before and simply don't buy it. Identical positions, say half guard or the 50/50 position, mean dramatically different things in the different sports. They also mean dramatically different things given the fighter who is or isn't in the dominant position's strengths. As I state in the video, I scored the fight for Johnson, but I don't believe we can import criteria for a different albeit similar sport and distill the action enough to make the new judging criteria count.
All that said, Johnson opens up in this interview about the origin on his nickname, whether he's actually a natural flyweight, how he earned the XBox sponsorship and much more.