The UFC is planning to book a flyweight title fight in August between dominant champ Demetrious Johnson and No. 1 bantamweight contender T.J. Dillashaw.
There's one major problem, however. Johnson is not interested in the fight.
UFC president Dana White told ESPN.com on Tuesday that Dillashaw (14-3) would be Johnson's next title defense. Dillashaw had been scheduled to fight bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt at UFC 213 on July 8, but that fight fell through due to a Garbrandt back injury.
Dillashaw has already agreed to the new title fight, but Johnson (26-2-1) took to social media on Tuesday to say he has no plans to allow Dillashaw to jump to the front of a new weight class.
"Just so the world know [sic] I haven't agreed to anything still waiting on my contract to fight [Ray Borg] not [Dillashaw]," Johnson wrote on Twitter. "If [Dillashaw] wants a title shot, he can come to flyweight and get a win [and] then get his turn."
According to sources, Borg (11-2) was already in consideration for Johnson's next title defense. He has won five of his past six fights.
A former bantamweight champion, Dillashaw told ESPN.com on Sunday that he was confident that he could make 125 pounds, despite his not weighing that little since high school.
He also questioned Johnson's motives, should the 10-time defending champ decline to fight him. Johnson is one title defense from breaking Anderson Silva's all-time UFC record for consecutive title defenses.
"I want to fight the best fighter in the world, and I think he does nothing but tarnish his legacy if he doesn't take it," Dillashaw said. "He can't call himself the greatest of all time if there are big fights coming to him and he's turning them down. He wants to break a record fighting someone no one's ever heard of? Why not make this thing epic and sell it?
"He's been talking about getting paid. This is the way to do it."
ESPN.com ranks Johnson and Dillashaw the Nos. 1 and 3 pound-for-pound fighters in the world, respectively.
