Henry Cejudo Shocks The World And Dethrones Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson As UFC Flyweight Champion

WOW. After a five round war that was undoubtably the best fight in UFC Flyweight history, the unspeakable has been done, and the streak has been broken.

Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, the first and only UFC Flyweight Champion, was dethroned tonight after thirteen consecutive wins (his last loss coming on October 1st, 2011) and eleven consecutive title defenses, the most in company history. For every “unbeatable” champion to ever grace the UFC, I’ve been able to visualize the moment that changed. Not correctly, of course. Not for all of them. But there’s been the moments where I’ve imagined Anderson Silva, or Ronda Rousey, or Joanna Jedrzejczyk, or Jose Aldo losing their belts. Right now, I could imagine Holly Holm landing the right head kick on Cris Cyborg and knocking her out, even AFTER watching how their fight played out. I could imagine Conor McGregor landing a left hand in October and knocking the “unbeatable” Khabib Nurmagomedov out, all bias aside. We’ve seen chinks in the armor of all of these fighters, where you could THINK about them being beaten.

With Demetrious Johnson, I have to admit, I never even thought about a scenario in which he lost. Not tonight, not any night. Even knowing the wrestler that Henry Cejudo is, there was no doubt in my mind that Mighty Mouse would go in there and win either a dominant 50-45 decision or knock out/submit Cejudo fairly quickly. It wasn’t even that I was confident in a Johnson victory, per say, but I was so oblivious to the fact that he could lose that I didn’t even put much thought into it. And I think many people going into this fight had the same mentality, and I think that really speaks volumes about DJ’s greatness.

Henry Cejudo, the +400 underdog tonight, showed the world that he was not to be overlooked, that he was not okay with losing to Johnson a second time, and that Johnson could, in fact, bleed when he defeated him via split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47). DJ didn’t literally bleed, because Cejudo’s victory was due largely to his (Olympic Gold Medal-winning) wrestling pedigree, but figuratively, homeboy had a bloody nose for sure.

This fight was EXTREMELY close, and I actually scored it 48-47 for the defending champion (Cejudo’s takedowns early on didn’t really mean as much to me as they must’ve to the cageside judges, especially considering no real damage was done on the ground after they were executed) but I have no issue with Cejudo getting the nod due to how razor-thin the twenty five minutes in the octagon were. The footwork, scrambles, and grappling displayed were off the charts the entire fight, and we really got a great showcase of Flyweight fighting at it’s peak, which was…*drumroll*…fucking awesome! Who could’ve ever predicted that?

I wish DJ’s eventual dethroning were just a bit more decisive, deep down, I think, because I know there will be questions about whether or not Henry Cejudo truly did enough to deserve ending the most dominant and impressive championship reign in UFC (and possibly MMA) history, but what’s done is done, and it is what it is.

Congratulations to Henry Cejudo on a phenomenal performance and fight, and congratulations to Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson on the reign that was. One of the greatest I’ve ever had the privilege of watching, and covering. Hats off.