Demetrious Johnson
D
emetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson is known by many as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. With more than 30 fights to his name, the 12-time Flyweight MMA World Champion has received high praise and accolades throughout his illustrious professional career, and his most recent performance cemented his status as a martial arts legend.
Johnson battled Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a special rules contest at ONE Championship's 10-year anniversary spectacle, ONE X, at the end of March. The unique bout featured Muay Thai and MMA rules in alternating rounds and culminated with Mighty Mouse defeating the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion by rear-naked choke in the second frame.
The American superstar looked back on ONE X with fond memories, seeing it as yet another ground-breaking event put on by the Singapore-based organization.
“It was just like ONE: CENTURY – it had two cards in one day. You had multiple world title fights, Giorgio Petrosyan getting the Grand Prix million dollar prize, Rodtang fought Gonclaves on that one, you know? I ended up finishing the World Grand Prix. So, to have ONE X be almost, kind of, identical to that – it was an honor. So it was fun,” Johnson said.
The MMA veteran signed to ONE in 2018, but had fought professionally for over 10 years before that. With so much experience under his belt, Johnson is no stranger to what makes a promotion special – and when it comes to ONE Championship, he puts it down to a couple of key elements.
“Greatness. That's one thing I think that separates ONE Championship from all the other organizations in America. It's just that we have kickboxing, submission grappling, Muay Thai. A lot of fans are going to enjoy that. That's the biggest thing. I think ONE Championship has something no other market has, which is all of the art forms under one umbrella,” Johnson said.
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Mighty Mouse clearly believes that ONE is the right place for him, and he feels as active and hungry for the next challenge as he’s ever been – despite being settled into the second decade of his career.
But even with all this experience under his belt, Johnson remains the same dedicated competitor.
“Nothing changes in fighting or in my career,” Johnson said, “because I’ve been doing it for so long.”
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This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship