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It takes a special personality to overshadow the accomplishments of the likes of Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre. Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson is a once in a lifetime athlete. There has never been a champion, who followed the theory of ‘beautiful chaos’ quite like the current UFC Flyweight Champion.
UFC 215 was supposed to be a historic night for Mighty Mouse, however, the champion will get a second chance at UFC 216. With the panache that hasn’t been seen in lower weight classes since the halcyon days of WEC’s elite, Demetrious, with his now trademark calm demeanour approaches what is easily the biggest night of his illustrious career.
The one man standing in the path of DJ’s shot at immortality is Ray Borg. Borg played the role of the pantomime villain at UFC 215, while the fans and pundits were cautious in letting the gravity of the situation get the better of them, Borg reopened some old wounds, pulling out of the fight just a day prior to the event.
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However, The Tazmexican Devil vehemently argued that it wasn’t the “same old, same old”. While Borg has been a repeat offender, missing weight on multiple occasions in the past, he has since revealed that he fell ill before UFC 215, leading to the doctors refusing to clear him for the fight.
I recently managed to ask both Demetrious Johnson and Ray Borg a couple of questions, leading up to their fight at UFC 216.
Demetrious, obviously there were a lot of questions going into UFC 215 about Ray making weight, and the fight was called off for one reason or the other. Were there any second thoughts about fighting Borg on the UFC 216 card?
Demetrious Johnson: No, not at all. I’m happy that UFC got it rescheduled super fast, and I’m still just worried about myself.
Ray, you talked about falling ill due to a flu bug in your camp, and that being compounded due to the weather change in Canada. With 216 approaching, what changes have you made to ensure that you’d be 100% healthy going into the fight camp this time around?
Ray Borg: I don’t know, maybe just staying healthy. I mean, there’s sometimes you just can’t — you can’t put out the inevitable, and everyone in my camp was sick (for UFC 215). My wife was sick, and I was just banking on not catching it, but it happened. There’s not a whole lot you can do, but I’ve been taking proper vitamins, I’ve been taking care of myself.
That’s the only thing. I mean, you can’t really stop the sickness. So, I’ve just been kind of strutting along, doing the same stuff.
You said you haven’t enlisted the services of a nutritionist for this camp. So how has this camp come along, as compared to the other times?
Ray Borg: Same as my fights prior. I never had a problem making weight to begin with, and I tried to add a nutritionist to help me out, because I was getting a little bit older. The weight was getting a little bit tougher to cut. But, I just went back to doing the same stuff that got me to the show, and I’m not working with anybody this time around. Just because one thing people don’t understand is that there wasn’t a weight issue.
I was just legitimately sick. If it was a weight issue, then when Dana had the doctors come down to check me out, they would have told him it was a weight-cutting issue. But the doctor did not clear me to fight because I was actually sick.
So, I mean, in this sense, there wasn’t much of a point for a nutritionist, because I didn’t come home and blow up 10 pounds, and eat burgers all day. All I did was, I came home, I rested and made sure I was eating the right food to make sure I was feeling better, and my weight was never a problem, to begin with.
So my weight just pretty much stayed the same. And it’s not going to be an issue at all — in future fights, whatever, this weekend, next weekend… whatever. So, it’s just been the same thing I’ve done for years and years. I’ve never had a nutritionist leading up to the UFC, (while) getting into the UFC. I never had a nutritionist in the first few fights, so it’s just doing things on my own.
I know my body more than any other nutritionist will. So, it’s just deciding to do things my way, by myself, and how I used to do.
