And for his next trick, the great Demetrious Johnson will attempt ... what, exactly?

After submitting Ray Borg with something out of a Spiderman comic at UFC 216, the one thing Demetrious Johnson didn’t want to talk about was his immediate fighting future.

“Everyone is so quick to jump to the next one,” the UFC flyweight champ said. “It’s been 25 minutes since the fight.”

Fair enough, but now it’s been over 36 hours since the fight, so can we talk about it yet?

I only ask because it feels like Johnson (27-2-1 MMA, 15-1-1 UFC) is at a crossroads. His win over Borg (11-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) on Saturday night in Las Vegas shattered the record for consecutive UFC title defenses. It also established him as a bonafide ninja, thanks to a transition from slam to armbar that most of us didn’t even know was possible.

So now Johnson has records and highlights that may never be topped. Who knows, he might even be on the verge of breaking through to another level of popularity with fans, since even the most curmudgeonly flyweight hater has to admit that he’s something special now.

Opportunity is in the air for the champ. But if he squanders it now, it may never come again.

Realistically, there are two options for Johnson’s next fight: 1) He can fight another flyweight, continuing his reign of terror over all 125-pound men, or 2) He can fight a bantamweight, essentially accepting a weight handicap as a means to test his skill.

If he goes with door No. 1, we’re probably looking at a fight against the winner of Henry Cejudo vs. Sergio Pettis, who are set to square off in December. The problem is, Johnson has already beaten Cejudo – easily – and he’d be a huge favorite to do the same to Pettis, who’s still a work in progress at 24.

This is a side effect of Johnson’s greatness. He’s dominated his own weight class so thoroughly that any fight in that division now comes with at least the perception of a low degree of difficulty. It feels like he’s walking a tightrope that’s six inches off the ground. He looks good doing it, and he manages to pull off some amazing tricks on his way across, but it never feels like he’s in any real danger.

That brings us to the second option. Johnson’s been reluctant to go back up to bantamweight without the promise of a big payday, and he balked at welcoming a bigger fighter to his division because he worried that a problem on the scales might prevent him from breaking the title-defense record.

Both those concerns seem less like dealbreakers now. Johnson already has the record, so a failed weight cut wouldn’t be such a big deal. And the UFC could sure use a champion-vs.-champion superfight right about now, since there aren’t too many marquee attractions on the calendar past early November.

The point is, now feels like the time for something special. And since Johnson’s record is a testament to his consistency and longevity when it comes to the task of beating up flyweights, watching him beat up one more probably isn’t going to feel all that novel.

Now’s the time for a new challenge, one he might actually fail at.

If not, he risks letting his success become so common that we take it – and him – for granted.

For more on UFC 216, check out the UFC Events section of the site.