Alexandre Pantoja will not be getting the Christmas gift he's looking for this year after all.
At UFC 310 on Saturday, after choking out RIZIN champ Kai Asakura, Brazil's Pantoja called for a fight with Demetrious Johnson.
The callout of "Mighty Mouse" was a rather interesting one: the inaugural UFC flyweight champion, who later moved to ONE Championship and claimed a title there, recently retired. Still, he's considered the flyweight GOAT, and much like Georges St-Pierre after he hung up the gloves, there's still a desire to see him compete.
Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press following UFC 310 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Pantoja called the fight the answer to "what do you want for Christmas?" Well, here's hoping there's a few more items on his list.
In response to Pantoja's callout, Johnson has confirmed he will not be returning to action. "Why would I do that? The bank account is sitting nice and good. 38 years old, 11 consecutive title defenses. The champ ain't coming back," said "Mighty Mouse" via his official Youtube channel. Since retiring, Demetrious Johnson has focused on business ventures, as well as social media and streaming, with an impressive following on Twitch in particular.
Johnson took over a year off before making his retirement decision, and now claims he doesn't miss fighting. What's more, he's already been offered $2 million by another promotion to come back for a single fight - and declined.
"You know what the beautiful thing about the position I'm in is? I've been offered $2 million dollars to come and do one fight. One fight and what do you guys think I said? I said no. I said absolutely no," Johnson revealed. "It wasn't with the UFC. It wasn't against Alex Pantoja. I'm not going to tell you who it was with but I got offered $2 million dollars to fight and there comes a point in time in an athlete's career where you sit back and you'll be 'like why am I fighting?' Is it to be the best in the world? Shit, I was the best in the world for six years. Not just in America but also in Japan and I went up a division. I went to 135 instead of 125."
Johnson went on to add that "I gave myself a full-blown year to see if I'm going to miss it, if it's my identity. And I didn't miss it."
Sorry, Alexandre Pantoja. There's no doubt the UFC will be able to produce more contenders internally however.