Demetrious Johnson has been a part of several of the fights that are considered to be among the most memorable in the history of mixed martial arts. But according to him, none of those can compare to one of the competitions that was held under the ONE Championship banner that he took part in.
The AMC Pankration and Evolve MMA athlete was speaking in reference to his fight against Rodtang Jitmuangnon, which took place under mixed rules at ONE X in March of the previous year.
After suffering his only loss in a promotion to Adriano Moraes at ONE ON TNT 1, the fighter from Washington broke away from his normal activity to compete against the hard-hitting Thai on the occasion of the promotion’s ten-year anniversary show.
To everyone’s amazement, “Mighty Mouse” stood and survived Rodtang’s striking in the first round to take the bout into the second round, which was contested in accordance with MMA regulations. Many people had anticipated that he would submit to Rodtang’s striking in the first round.
The outcome of the fight in accordance with the regulations of the all-encompassing sport in the second round did not come as a surprise to anyone. About two minutes were all that were necessary for Demetrious Johnson to close the deal and get a tap from Rodtang.
And because there was so much riding on the outcome of that particular evening, “Mighty Mouse” has no doubt in his mind that it was one of the most iconic moments of his career.
On MightyCast, he made the following statement:
“First in Muay Thai, then in mixed martial arts, I competed against Rodtang. To tell you the truth, that match was easily the most important of my whole professional career. Simply because when I go to Thailand these days, people tell me things like, “Oh, you beat Rodtang, you put him to sleep, you’ve got good Muay Thai, I like,” etc.
Listen to his podcast at this link:
Since then, Demetrious Johnson has won the ONE Flyweight MMA World Championship twice, making him the current champion. On the other hand, Rodtang has successfully defended his flyweight Muay Thai strap on three separate occasions. On September 22, he will be defending his title against Superlek Kiatmoo9 at ONE Friday Fights 34. The event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand.
On the ONE Championship YouTube channel, you can watch all of the action from the card live and at no cost.
