Demetrious Johnson's opponent would rather get paid than win UFC title

LAS VEGAS — No one, least of all Tim Elliott, expected this day to ever come. A few days after a loss to Zach Makovsky on Feb. 14, 2015, the flyweight received his walking papers from the UFC.

The loss to Makovsky was his third straight in 21 months, and even Elliott believed he’d reached the end of the line in his mixed martial arts career.

“At the time I got fired, I’d thought I was probably done fighting and I’d come to terms with it,” Elliott said.

The former collegiate wrestler had compiled a 2-4 UFC record and was looking forward to the next stage of his life. But like most former world-class athletes, he couldn’t sit around idly.

He continued to go to the gym to work out. And though he trained in MMA, it wasn’t the same as the grinding preparation for a fight. He was there to stay in shape and enjoy himself.

“I was going to the gym to goof around and get a little practice in and stay in shape,” Elliott said. “I started having fun again. [When I was fighting], I was killing myself going to the gym and grinding, grinding, grinding. That was taking the fun out of it.

“But after I was fired, I went to the gym just to learn and I started getting better. And as I was getting better, I was having more fun.”

And as Elliott assessed his life, there was one overriding factor: Right around the time he was cut, his daughter was born. He needed a way to provide for her.

When his manager offered him a shot to fight in the Titan Fighting Championships, he took it.

And that led him to the most unlikely of spots: To the Palms Casino on Saturday, where he’ll face pound-for-pound king Demetrious Johnson for the UFC flyweight title in “The Ultimate Fighter Finale.”

Elliott earned the right to face Johnson by winning Season 24 of the UFC’s reality series, defeating Charlie Alaniz, Matt Schnell, Eric Shelton and Hiromasa Ogikubo along the way.

The UFC took a different approach with Season 24, bringing in 16 fighters who were flyweight champions in other organizations and promising the winner a shot at Johnson.

UFC president Dana White said he was pleased with how the season went. He felt the fights on the show were all competitive and said Elliott’s experience in the house, winning four times in a short period, hardened him in a way that few who haven’t gone through it would understand.

“You never know what is going to happen in this sport,” White said. “Everybody says Demetrious Johnson is the pound-for-pound best in this sport and that Elliott shouldn’t even be fighting him. But I remember a lot of those same people saying the same thing after ‘The Comeback’ season when Matt Serra won and got to fight Georges St-Pierre.

“All I heard was, ‘This is crazy. He has no shot. GSP is going to kill him. And what happened? Matt Serra knocked GSP out. Tim Elliott is a season vet, a grinder, and he’s tough as hell, man. He’s OK anywhere the fight goes and I think he’s going to be a very tough opponent.”

Not many agree with White. Oddsmakers have Johnson around a 10-1 favorite, and voters in the UFC’s online fantasy game have chosen Johnson to win by a 93 percent to 7 percent margin.

Elliott is keenly aware of the skepticism but he’s undaunted by it. He said the only one of his losses where he was handled was by Joseph Benavidez.

“Nobody hurt me, nobody rocked me, nobody gave me a black eye or a bloody nose and I never had a mark on my face in any of those fights except for Joseph,” he said.

As great as Benavidez is, even he is 0-2 against Johnson.

But Elliott is optimistic despite odds that suggest he has little-to-no chance.

“I don’t go into a fight being careful at all, because that’s never my game plan,” Elliott said. “I’m a reckless fighter. That’s how I have to fight. You’re not going to beat Demetrious Johnson trying to out-technique him. The way you’re going to beat him is it’s got to be something different. It’s going to be something clever. It’s going to be something new.

“You have to get in his face and make it difficult and awkward for him, and that’s exactly my [thing].”

If he pulls the upset, it will rank along Serra’s win over St-Pierre and Holly Holm’s victory over Ronda Rousey as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

Don’t get the idea that Elliott is counting down the seconds until White wraps the belt around his waist and cheers rain down upon him.

Oh, he believes he’s going to win, but the things that go along with a dramatic championship win don’t mean a lot to him.

“I’ll be completely honest with you: The belt doesn’t mean anything to me,” Elliott said. “Recognition really doesn’t mean anything to me. The most important thing in my view is putting on a show and getting compensated for my work. I’ve put in a ton of hours. I’ve put in a lot of time. I’ve been away from my family and I want to get paid for that.

“That’s the only issue I’m really worried about. Fighting for the world title is like fighting in the gym: I absolutely love it, and that’s why I am doing it, but I want to get compensated adequately for it.”