Demetrious Johnson lukewarm on Joseph Benavidez trilogy fight: 'Is it going to sell?

After defending his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) flyweight title for the ninth consecutive time against Tim Elliott at last weekend’s (Sat., Dec. 3, 2016) Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 24 Finale in Las Vegas (see it again here), Demetrious Johnson is already looking ahead to his next bout.

While the time is right for "Mighty Mouse" to potentially move up to bantamweight and partake in a superfight against Dominick Cruz, at the moment he is more interested in trying to tie Anderson Silva's title defense record at 10.

"I want to defend the title. I am only 30 years old, and obviously it doesn’t matter who you fight," said Johnson on a recent edition of The MMA Hour. "Conor McGregor went up and fought Eddie Alvarez in Eddie’s first title defense and that was a superfight. So, for me, I am more focused on making history and not these superfights. The money is coming and I am not going to worry about that," he said.

The money is indeed coming, as "Mighty Mouse" banked a whopping $350,000 for his efforts against Elliott.

As for who will likely be Johnson’s next opponent, it will probably be a familiar face, as Joseph Benavidez may have punched his ticket to a third fight against Demetrious after defeating Henry Cejudo last weekend in "Sin City" (highlights).

Johnson already has two clean wins over "Joe Jitsu," so while he doesn’t exactly have a feel as to how a trilogy title fight between them will do at the box office, "Mighty Mouse" will partake in it if that’s what the powers that be want.

"It’s up to the UFC man, at the end of the day. It will be the third fight and is it going to sell? I don’t know if it will or not. But if that’s what UFC wants, that is fine. Out of all my title defenses, just completed number nine, I’ve never picked who I was going to fight. I’ve never cared who I was going to fight because at the end of the day, it makes no difference," he confirmed.

While Johnson has never selected opponents, this time around he said he will put his foot down and ask for his potential record-tying championship defense to go down in Las Vegas, Nevada, as he says that’s where he performs the best.

What the champ wants, the champ should get.

As far as when that potential fight takes places, the timetable is uncertain, as "Mighty Mouse" revealed that he may have suffered a small tear in his LCL and is scheduled to get an MRI later this week.