Demetrious Johnson knew he was in for "something fun" when he joined ONE Championship

Demetrious Johnson has been an excellent spokesperson for ONE Championship and what the promotion offers. In a recent appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Johnson spoke about his experience competing inside the circle.

In a near three-hour episode, ONE’s flyweight champion and the UFC’s long-running color commentator spoke about the various martial arts that ONE incorporates all under one roof.

After speaking about the explosion of submission grappling in ONE, the conversation switched to other aspects of combat sports that take place inside the promotion.

Johnson mentioned one specific fight, as well as a recent contest of his own:

“We had one boxing match, which was for a WBC title; boxing gloves, full-blown boxing. It was a world title fight. That’s one of the things I love about ONE Championship, is that they’re mixing it up. So when I got the opportunity to go there and compete like, I knew I had the opportunity to do something fun like I did with Rodtang.”

Before avenging his loss to Adriano Moraes and winning the flyweight world championship, Demetrious Johnson competed against Rodtang in a mixed-rules superfight.

Johnson’s negotiations in the buildup to that fight were also a big part of the podcast, with ‘Mighty Mouse’ detailing how that contest came together.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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Demetrious Johnson shares the reason why he prefers combat sports over team sports

Demetrious Johnson has long been established as one of the pound-for-pound greats in MMA. In his last fight, Johnson added to his phenomenal legacy by avenging his only loss in the circle to Adriano Moraes, becoming the ONE flyweight world champion in the process.

However, MMA wasn’t always the path for 'DJ'. In an interview with Mouse Jones on YouTube, the flyweight great spoke about his previous experiences with competing in team sports before leaving it behind:

“I always hated being punished for other people’s ignorance. Where I come from, there’s a huge drug problem, like marijuana. This was before marijuana was legal.”

In the interview, ‘Mighty Mouse’ spoke about his former teammates, who were more interested in getting high than anything else. When he felt that lack of commitment, it pushed him towards MMA, where he only has to rely on himself:

“Mixed martial arts is a team sport but I’m going out there and competing by myself. I think wrestling led me into that because wrestling’s the same way - you train as a team but if homeboy’s in the bathroom getting high, he’s going to get in trouble for that because I can still practice without him. In football, you can’t practice if the f***ing quarterback’s in the back taking a rip. He’s like, ‘Where’s the quarterback?’ I was like, ‘He’s in the bathroom coach, he’s been in there for 20 minutes, what do you want me to do?’"

Demetrious Johnson further added:

“That’s what kind of traced me to wrestling and wrestling led me to mixed martial arts.”

Watch the full interview below: