Demetrious Johnson Getting His Extra Belt Copies, Says Dana White
"I'm taking this motherf–ker home!"– Demetrious Johnson let the UFC and the world know he was keeping the championship he walked to the cage with Saturday night in Kansas City, and wants more.
After 11 straight title fight wins, Johnson only had one copy of the title belt he's defended for four years. Johnson, who tied Anderson Silva's consecutive UFC title defense record, stated last week that he saw other UFC Champions with multiple title belts, and he wants the same treatment — specifically for his children.
"I want to recapture that photo that Floyd Mayweather has done, Andre Ward just did it. All my belts, I'll even bring my amateur belts, just to show the process I went through. Ten title defenses," Johnson said after the fight.
Johnson elaborated before the event.
“I’m getting pissed off about that,” Johnson said ahead of the fight. “I saw Daniel Cormier get three damn belts, so Dana White, WME-IMG, whoever writes the checks, give me eight damn belts please, and then I have nine if I win this one. I’ll take it home. I’m going to start collecting these belts. Michael Bisping has two belts and I’m just a nice guy, just a company man, I come here, fight and then they take the belt away from me and I'm like, ‘alright, peace. Call me when you want me to come fight again.’ And that's it. But now I'm seeing these guys with three belts, and I'm like, I only got one belt and have to share it with two of my kids.”
UFC President Dana White let Megan Olivi know backstage that the UFC will extend their dominant champion the courtesy, but said that isn't the standard.
"I'm going to get him his belts. He's keeping the belt tonight, and I guess I have some catching up to do. That's not the way it works. You defend your title, you keep your belt. It's going to be a lot of money to get him 8 more belts. We don't even have 8 more belts. We order them as we do events. There's going to be a backup on his belts, but we'll get it done," Dana White said after the event.