Despite what Dana White says, Demetrious Johnson has as much of a case for being the MMA GOAT as Jon Jones. In fact, many feel that ‘Bones’ should not even be in the fabled conversation owing to his history of PED usage which essentially makes him a cheat. Either way, the point is that Johnson with his eleven title defenses, remarkably well-rounded game, and stratospheric fight IQ is one of the greatest, if not the greatest. This is why UFC flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja called out ‘DJ’ for a fight after UFC 310.

Pantoja, who has cleaned out his division, claimed he was the GOAT now and called out Johnson (now retired) to ‘come back’ to prove the Brazilian wrong. Former champion Kamaru Usman, speaking about this interesting turn of events, felt that the UFC had buried Johnson and his brilliance since he is no longer with the promotion.

“Let’s talk about Demetrious Johnson, we need to talk. I know it’s hard because he was a guy who left the company and went to a different organization. And, you know, when you leave the company at when you still got steam, the company kind of, I hate to say it but they erase everything. They erase your memory from people’s minds and they just kind of throw you away,” Usman said on his ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast.

Of course, Johnson left the UFC in 2018, traded by Dana White to ONE Championship for Ben Askren because of how unhappy ‘DJ’ was in the promotion. ‘Mighty Mouse’ felt that he was being underpaid by the UFC, while the promotion accused him of not being a PPV seller, and thus getting paid exactly what he deserved.

Since then there hasn’t been much celebration of Johnson and his excellence in the UFC. This, of course, was also the case with Francis Ngannou, who also left the UFC on acrimonious terms last year. But Usman hasn’t forgotten just how good the now-retired Johnson was.

“But let’s bring it back, Demetrious Johnson is Jon Jones GOAT status. He’s not Jon Jones, don’t let don’t get me wrong… But Demetrious Johnson, with what he did with his opposition in his respective weight class is GOAT status,” he added. But what about the Pantoja call-out? Is ‘DJ’ coming back to the UFC to prove who the real GOAT is?

Kamaru Usman feels Demetrious Johnson will be back despite refusal

Demetrious Johnson reacted to Pantoja’s UFC 310 call-out live on his YouTube channel. And unfortunately, the answer was no. ‘DJ’ told fans that he was just too old and had too much money to want to come back. “The champ ain’t coming back,” he declared. And that is that, right? Well, Kamaru Usman doesn’t think so.

“I mean this guy is incredible. And to be honest with you, I do believe he comes back,” Usman said on his podcast. Not only does ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ believe Johnson will come back, but is sure that “he has the potential of being a champion again right now if he came back.” Of course, it would be smart for ‘DJ’, even if he was thinking of coming back to say that he doesn’t plan on coming back. After all, he could leverage that to his advantage and make Dana White pay through the nose for the privilege of having him back.

This tactic, of course, is fairly common in boxing and is even making its way into the UFC with Jon Jones and his give me “f**k you money” to fight Tom Aspinall or ‘I retire’ shenanigans. But whether Johnson is really sincere in turning down the Pantoja fight or plans on coming back remains to be seen. What do you think about Kamaru Usman’s take on Demetrious Johnson’s treatment by the UFC?