Filed under: News, UFC

DETROIT – UFC President Dana White said flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson’s next title defense will be against current bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw.

“Yeah, that fight’s going to happen,” White told reporters at the post-event press conference for UFC 218, which took place Saturday at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. “We haven’t announced it yet.”

White didn’t say when and where the fight would take place, or whether he’d yet spoken to Johnson, who was in attendance at the pay-per-view event. Johnson watched cageside as his former opponent, Henry Cejudo, halted the rise of promising up-and-comer Sergio Pettis.

Johnson has repeatedly hedged on a “superfight” with a bantamweight champ, declaring he would need $2 million to agree to it. White balked at the demand.

Dillashaw, however, has persisted. After taking the bantamweight title this past month from his rival Cody Garbrandt, he renewed his call to move down in weight to challenge Johnson, who turned down a potential fight in favor of a record-breaking 11th title defense against Ray Borg in October.

Dillashaw claims he can make the flyweight limit without issue. Cejudo, however, warned that fighting down a division might be detrimental to his performance.

“He can say he’s light; when you get down to 125 pounds, you’re going to feel it the next day, and Demetrious is a cardio machine,” the onetime title challenger said at UFC 218’s post-fight presser. “I think that’s what’s going to make that fight dangerous. How at 135 pounds, it might be different. But at 125 pounds, I can say it will be a pretty dominant win by Demetrious Johnson.”

Before any more predictions get made, though, it sounds like the UFC needs to iron out the details on the champ vs. champ showdown.

For complete coverage of UFC 218, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

Filed under: News, UFC