Demetrious Johnson: Why I moved to ONE Championship
“Chatri said it best when he said, ‘I want to make real life superheroes. I want people to want to have a poster of Demetrious Johnson on their walls.’”
Demetrious Johnson is arguably the MMA G.O.A.T. and intends to finish his extraordinary career in Asia, at ONE Championship. In a compelling interview with E. Spencer Kyte for Sporting News, ‘Mighty’ explained why he moved on from the UFC.
Why not? he asked rhetorically. I had been the champion for six years. I had been in the UFC for seven years. I only lost two fights and I have never been finished. All my fights have been close. I fought for the world title at bantamweight. I defended the belt 11 consecutive times at flyweight. So, I feel like there was nothing left for me to do. If I were to go back and beat Henry Cejudo, I’m right back at the top of the flyweight division again. If I were to lose, I’m back where I started.
“I feel like this is a fresh start going over to ONE Championship, the Home of Martial Arts. If I want to do Muay Thai, I can. If I want to do kickboxing, I can. If I want to do submission grappler, I can do that too. So, why not? This is the last chapter of my career where I’m going to put five good, solid years in and then I’m done.
A new weight class! I don’t have to fight at 125 anymore. I have to weigh 135, which is nice because I’m getting older and I’m getting tired of f@$%ing cutting those extra 10 pounds.
It’s also awesome because I don’t have to worry about selling a f@$%ing pay-per-view or the numbers on the pay-per-view, it didn’t sell or anything like that. It’s one thing I love about ONE Championship — they’re not focused on numbers and selling pay-per-views.”
The UFC is looking for the next big star to sell pay-per-views and make money or whatever, while ONE Championship is just focused on telling everybody’s story, making everybody relevant in their hometown. Chatri said it best when he said, ‘I want to make real life superheroes. I want people to want to have a poster of Demetrious Johnson on their walls.’ I think it’s just two different organizations, which isn’t bad. The UFC just signed that new deal with ESPN to host all pay-per-views and it’s a good model, while ONE Championship is all about honor and the code of martial arts.
I’ve got five years left and you look at all the great athletes who have done mixed martial arts — ‘Rampage’ [Jackson], Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva, Cro Cop, the list goes on — they started in Japan and finished in North America. But it’s very rare that you see legit mixed martial artists leave the North American audience and go over to the Eastern audience and that’s what I’m doing and I’m really looking forward to it.
On Sunday he makes his ONE debut vs. Yuya Wakamatsu in the opening round of the promotion’s Flyweight Grand Prix. You can watch it live and free on the Super App.