Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Flyweights

1. Demetrious Johnson

Yet another unanimous selection by the Sherdog panel. Johnson is in my opinion the second greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time, even ahead of such luminaries as Georges St. Pierre, Fedor Emelianenko and Anderson Silva. His career began and looks to end at bantamweight, where despite being ridiculously undersized, Johnson has still had plenty of success, coming in as the 10th greatest fighter at that weight according to our poll. Yet between the two ends of his career, Johnson established a run of dominance and greatness at flyweight that may not be matched for decades. Johnson was a nearly perfect fighter in every way, and unlike current champion Deiveson Figueiredo, that perfection especially included his cardio, the greatest in the sport's history, and his fight IQ and mental preparation, certainly among the very best as well. Johnson consistently made great decisions throughout a fight, even very deep into the final stanza. Additionally, he had phenomenal grappling, an outstanding mix of wrestling and BJJ, and excellent striking, especially his kicks, as well as his tireless and technical movement. After an initial draw that we've discussed against Ian McCall, Johnson went 13-0 at flyweight from 2012 until 2018, including an incredible, UFC-record 11 straight title defenses. Moreover, very few of these fights were remotely close.

Johnson’s victories include decisively beating McCall in the rematch, winning a tight decision over Joseph Benavidez for the first UFC flyweight crown despite being a significant underdog, brutally knocking out Benavidez in the first round in their rematch, beating the very dangerous and skilled John Dodson twice, achieving late fifth-round submissions over John Moraga, Ray Borg and Kyoji Horiguchi, the last a second before fight ended, earlier submissions over Wilson Reis and Chris Cariaso, five round beatings of Ali Bagautinov and Tim Elliott and a quick knockout of Henry Cejudo in their first encounter. Despite Johnson likely being slightly past his prime for the Cejudo rematch and his great opponent turning in the fight of his life, it's still an open question who actually won, so evenly matched were the duo. Afterwards, Johnson joined One Championship and won a title in its 135-pound division. Regardless, he has established an incredible standard at flyweight, and if anyone beats it, they will very likely be considered the greatest fighter of all time at any weight.