How great is Demetrious Johnson?

There are ten weight divisions in the UFC, eight for men, and two for women.

Heavyweight
Stipe Miocic
Won title on May 14, 2016
Number of successful defenses: 1

Light Heavyweight
Daniel Cormier
Won title on May 23, 2015
Number of successful defenses: 1

Middleweight
Michael Bisping
Won title on June 4, 2016
Number of successful defenses: 1

Welterweight
Tyron Woodley
Won title on July 30, 2016
Number of successful defense: 1

Lightweight
Conor McGregor
Won title on November 12, 2016
Number of successful defenses: 0

Featherweight
Jose Aldo
Won title on November 26, 2016
Number of successful defenses: 0

Bantamweight
Dominick Cruz
Won title on January 17, 2016
Number of successful defenses: 1

Flyweight
Demetrious Johnson
Won title on Sep 22, 2012
Number of successful defenses: 9

Women’s Bantamweight
Amanda Nunes
Won title on Jul 9, 2016
Number of successful defenses: 0

Women’s Strawweight
Joanna Jędrzejczyk
Won title on Mar 14, 2015
Number of successful defenses: 4

If you look at these numbers, one extraordinary fact leaps out – Demetrious Johnson has as many successful title defenses as all other UFC champions combined.

Mixed martial arts is an unpredictable sport, particularly at the highest levels. It is really, really hard to win one MMA fight. It is extraordinarily hard to win a world championship, and it only gets harder still to defend. Thus Johnson’s defending his title successfully the same number of times as the rest of the sport is a true measure of his greatness, the best pound of pound fighter in mixed martial arts.

Conor McGregor is intent on topping himself each time. He won the featherweight title, and then determined to become the first fighter to hold two belts simultaneously. He won two belts simultaneously, and now apparently wants to box Floyd Mayweather.

However, there was a degree of contempt when Mayweather was asked last month about “The Mayweather of MMA, Conor McGregor.”

I didn’t know Conor McGregor was undefeated, said Mayweather. I didn’t know that he had a reign in MMA for 20 years and undefeated, and was world champion in five different weight classes. That’s something I didn’t know. So I guess you guys telling me something new, if you say he’s the Floyd Mayweather of the MMA.”

If McGregor wants to top himself, he could defend his belt ten times, but by then, Johnson could be far higher still.