Demetrious Johnson comes clean on reason behind MMA retirement: "I fell out of love with the politics"

Demetrious Johnson had one of the most exemplary mixed martial arts careers of all time. The former UFC champion recently spotlighted what made him feel a bit disenfranchised by the sport.

In an interview with 1st Phorm, 'Mighty Mouse' spoke of always loving the training process. Johnson also mentioned he feels the fact that he trains jiu jitsu to this day is emblematic of that enjoyment of the refinement process.

After speaking about how his love for the process of getting ready to fight and compete will never go away, Johnson added:

"The thing that I fell out of love with with fighting was the politics. I fell out of love with just preparing, the press conferences, I didn't care about that. I didn't care about being the best in the world anymore. I just didn't care. There comes a point in time I was like, is this it?"

He continued:

"Like is this what my life's gonna; the sum of it. So that's when I was like you know, I think I'm done. I've had enough. I want to see if I can make money using my intelligence and creating something that people can actually enjoy watching and I can do until I'm like 85-years-old."

Check out Demetrious Johnson's comments below:

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Demetrious Johnson claims he broke specific curse before current UFC champion

Demetrious Johnson was specific in mentioning that he was not frustrated about some of the rhetoric following UFC 314, but feels like some MMA accomplishments outside of the UFC bubble can go unnoticed.

The rhetoric in question centred on Alexander Volkanovski becoming the first fighter 35 years or older from flyweight to lightweight when he regained the featherweight title against Diego Lopes in their Miami matchup.

The 38-year-old felt that accomplishment was myopic toward the UFC and discounted that Johnson already achieved this feat in Aug. 2022. Less than two weeks after his 36th birthday, Johnson became the ONE flyweight champion when he stopped Adriano Moraes in the fourth round to avenge a prior loss.

"There's been other athletes outside of the UFC who've done it before. Yeah, but that just shows you how big the UFC is... Nobody recognizes any other organization. But that is a big feat. Being over 35. I think I've done it against Adriano. When I did the flying knee, I was 36 years old."

Check out Demetrious Johnson's comments below (19:23):