Demetrious Johnson, one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, has not decided whether he will retire after his upcoming fight. He will defend his ONE Championship 135-pound title against Adriano Moraes in Colorado on May 5. It will be Johnson’s first fight in the US since 2018 and ONE’s first event in the country.
Following the fight, Johnson plans to go on vacation with his family and evaluate his future. Despite the outcome, he will not make an in-cage announcement. Johnson first mentioned the possibility of retiring on “The MMA Hour” last week.
He said, “I’m 36 now. I’ve accomplished everything in this sport. The only two things I never accomplished in this sport, and I’ll ride this to the grave, is I never got on a massive pay-per-view with Conor McGregor where I got that ‘red panty night’ where you make $5 to $6 million. And two, I never became a champ-champ.”
Although Johnson has never held titles in two different divisions in the same promotion, he defended the UFC flyweight belt 11 consecutive times, a UFC record for successful title defenses. Johnson admitted that the feat is more challenging than being a two-division champion. He remains hopeful for a significant payday in the future, but he is content if it does not happen.
In ONE, Johnson achieved another career goal by winning a grand prix tournament. He grew up watching Pride FC and Dream in Japan and the epic tourneys those promotions had. Johnson won the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix in 2019, beating three opponents over the course of seven months. He won the ONE 135-pound title from Moraes via fourth-round knockout last August after falling to Moraes in their first fight, a second-round knockout in April 2021.
Johnson, who resides in Washington state, is 4-1 under the ONE banner since being traded to the Asian promotion for Ben Askren in 2018. If he retires after the third Moraes fight, he will leave behind one of the most significant legacies in MMA history.
Johnson said, “You can’t do this forever. So, when I look at my other counterparts, when I look at Khabib [Nurmagomedov], when I look at [Georges St-Pierre], they walked away from the sport, but they could have kept on fighting. And that’s the thing, too, it doesn’t have to be on top. I’m at a point in my career where I’m satisfied. I can truly say I’m satisfied. I still train my ass off. I still fight. I’m still good. There just has some to come a point in time where you just got to think about that.”
Leave a Reply