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Demetrious Johnson was already an icon even before he signed with ONE Championship, but his mythos grew even further when he started his exploits in the promotion.
The American legend left the UFC as the promotion’s record-holder for consecutive world title defenses when he defended the flyweight world title 11 times. Johnson then moved to ONE Championship, where he’s now the reigning ONE flyweight world champion.
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Those two accolades also make Johnson the first and only person to hold world titles in both ONE Championship and UFC.
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While his world title wins speak volumes of his greatness, Johnson has done more than collect gold.
That said here are the top three moments in Demetrious Johnson's ONE Championship career.
#3. Groundbreaking mixed-rules bout against Rodtang
While matches between GOAT-tier athletes in mixed martial arts are impossible to materialize with weight classes and all, the same cannot be said in cross-sport fights.
Demetrious Johnson, who’s widely regarded as the greatest flyweight of all time, matched up against ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a mixed-rules bout on ONE Championship’s 10th-anniversary card.
At ONE X, the world was treated to a mythical showdown between two martial artists in their absolute prime. The pair were given four rounds to work with. The first and three rounds were Muay Thai while the remaining periods were MMA.
Johnson, though, needed just two. After he survived the striking onslaught in the first round, Johnson calmly delivered in the second.
‘Mighty Mouse’ knew that Rodtang was in his domain and he immediately charged at the Thai megastar with clinical precision.
After he baited Rodtang into throwing a wild left hook, Johnson took Rodtang’s back and it wasn’t long until he secured a tight rear-naked choke that sucked the air out of the Muay Thai monster.
#2. ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix win
An icon such as Demetrious Johnson could easily demand an instant world title shot the moment he arrived at ONE Championship in 2019, but ‘Mighty Mouse’ isn’t one to throw his reputation and status around.
Johnson wanted to work his way to a shot at ONE Championship gold while also fulfilling his dream of winning a tournament.
The Seattle native has been heavily influenced by the legendary PRIDE FC and its tournament formats, and he lived that dream when he tore through the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix.
2019 was one of the best years in Johnson’s career when he scored three straight wins in the tournament against Yuya Wakamatsu in Tokyo, Tatsumitsu Wada in Manila, and finally Danny Kingad back in Tokyo.
Johnson first submitted Wakamatsu in the quarterfinal before utterly dominating Wada in the semifinal. Kingad tried to stop Johnson’s rampage in the tournament but he too fell victim to the genius of ‘Mighty Mouse’ in the final match of the Grand Prix.
The match saw Johnson capture the ONE flyweight world Grand Prix championship as well as set his shot for the ONE flyweight world title.
#1. Becoming the ONE flyweight world champion
He might have needed a rematch to achieve it, but the way Demetrious Johnson captured the ONE flyweight world title is the stuff of legends.
Johnson fell short in his first shot at gold when rival Adriano Moraes knocked him out in stunning fashion at ONE on TNT I in April 2021.
More than a year since that disappointing loss, Johnson was back challenging for the gold and he made sure that it won’t be slipping away from him this time around.
Johnson and Moraes met in a fateful rematch at ONE on Prime Video 1 in August 2022, with the American legend writing another chapter into his storied legacy.
Though Moraes seemed to have Johnson figured out in the first two rounds, ‘Mighty Mouse’ flipped the script in the third and fourth.
Johnson used his boxing to cut the distance and tag Moraes up close, he then decided to end things in the fourth when he blasted ‘Mikinho’ with the now iconic flying knee for the walk-off KO.
He may have taken almost three years to do it, but Johnson finally captured the ONE flyweight world title.
