“I’ll take my best version” – Demetrious Johnson reveals why he surpassed Prime Anderson Silva during his zenith
UFC's inaugral flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson and former middleweight champion Anderson Silva top the list for most consecutive title defense wins in UFC history with 11 and 10 wins, respectively.
However, Johnson believes he holds the edge over Silva with both in their primes. In a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Johnson dived into the topic and reasoned that he would choose his prime over the Brazilian legend's.
'Mighty Mouse' explained that he held no reservations in fighting an opponent at their strengths unlike Silva while referencing UFC 97:
“I’ll take my best version of prime Demetrious Johnson against the best prime of Anderson Silva because, let me tell you what, if you prime Demetrious Johnson and Thales Leites goes on his back and wants to pull guard, you best believe my black a** is going to not tell him to stand the f**k up, I’m going to go right in his guard and I’m going to bust him f*****g up with my jiu-jitsu. That’s why I would take prime Demetrious Johnson over prime Anderson Silva. Because those guys when their athletes would want to go in a certain realm, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, whatever it may be… I would have gotten in that guard like it was f*****g Destiny on a wedding night.”
Check out the UFC 97 fight between Silva and Leites:
Demetrious Johnson ranks himself and Jon Jones as the best fighters in history
Demetrious Johnson also ranked his top four mixed martial artists of all time with a notable omission in Khabib Nurmagomedov.
He ranked Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre No.4 and No.3, respectively. He also placed himself second on the list and cited his record streak of 11 consecutive title defenses.
However, Johnson was honest about his No.1 fighter and placed UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones there due to his domination at light heavyweight and his imposing presence in the octagon:
“And then, for my number one, I have Jon Bones Jones. That is the only man that I’ll put ahead of me. Because this man, I feel like, any single time he has been inside the cage, he could just destroy his opponent however he wanted. He also has wins by knockout, putting people to sleep, decisions, everything on the list.”
Check out his full comments below on his YouTube channel [1:45 and 3:45]: