“I like to go in jiu-jitsu blind” - Demetrious Johnson admits he gets more unnerved heading into his BJJ matches than in MMA

Demetrious Johnson is as unflappable as anyone in the fight game, but he admitted that he still got a bit nervous ahead of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu matches.

The reigning ONE flyweight MMA world champion admitted preparing for a BJJ tournament is almost incomparable to the work he does when he trains for his MMA fights.

In an interview with Buiten De Kooi, Johnson said he can study as much as he wants when he prepares to fight in MMA but that kind of luxury isn't afforded to him when training BJJ.

Demetrious Johnson said when he was asked if he gets nervous for a BJJ match:

"Oh absolutely. I get more nervous in jiu-jitsu than I did when I fought. Because when you fight it's like you get eight weeks, you get to watch all the video on them, you go in at the best shape of your life, and it's only 25 minutes."

He added:

"In jiu-jitsu, you might have six matches between six different people, and it's back to back, back to back. Deal with six different games, body types, strength, speed. So it's more of a mental, physical grind that it is in mixed martial arts. Mixed martial arts is like, okay you find out who you're fighting, you get to train for me, you get to watch all this tape. For me, I like to go into jiu-jitsu blind... I don't know who I'm gonna fight, I'm not looking them up, I'm gonna go out there and do the best that I can."

Johnson, however, turned those nerves into hardware when he won two gold medals in the 2023 IBJJF Master World Championships and 2024 IBJJF Pan Championships.

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Demetrious Johnson open to join ONE Championship's submission grappling scene

ONE Championship arguably has the best submission grappling world champions on the planet, and Demetrious Johnson wants in on the action.

In a previous episode of his Mighty Cast on YouTube, Johnson told MMA antihero Chael Sonnen he's open to joining the promotion's submission grappling ranks and possibly capturing a second world title in the promotion.

"You know, ONE Championship they have Brazilian jiu-jitsu and no-gi grappling so I could do that."

Watch the entire episode below: