Demetrious Johnson, the current champion of the ONE Flyweight Mixed Martial Arts division, is reflecting on the horrific knockout loss he suffered at the hands of Adriano Moraes, the longtime titleholder.
“Mighty Mouse” and Moraes competed in one of the most memorable trilogies in the history of mixed martial arts, which culminated in ONE’s highly lauded debut in North America, ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video.
In the evening of that same day, Johnson defeated ‘Mikinho’ for a second time in a row to successfully defend the title he had won nine months previously.
However, before Demetrious Johnson was able to get the better of Adriano Moraes, he suffered a loss in their first bout together, which took place at ONE on TNT 1 in April of 2021.
“I am employing a terrible strategy here.” “I go in for a deep underhook, exposing my chin, and then he’s able to land that knee, and I get dropped and finished, and it was a perfectly timed knee, and he caught me coming in,” Johnson stated when breaking down his first fight versus Moraes on his YouTube channel. Moraes had finished Johnson out with a knee to the body.”When I break the fight down, it’s so frustrating because when you’re fighting somebody, and I am the shorter athlete, and I’m trying to get to him, it takes forever,” the fighter said. “When I break the fight down, it’s so frustrating.” In particular when they go laterally, which they can do all day long, which is why it was so difficult for me to get to him.
It was the first knockout loss of Demetrious Johnson’s famous career, but in the end, ‘Mighty Mouse’ would be the one who would get the final laugh.
After 16 months had passed since their initial confrontation, Johnson would have his revenge by scoring a highlight-reel knockout of his own to capture the flyweight world title.
A unanimous decision gave ‘Mighty Mouse’ the victory over Adriano Moraes in the third and final match of their trilogy, which took place in May 2023 in front of a sold-out crowd at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colorado. This victory gave ‘Mighty Mouse’ the series victory.
Since then, neither man has returned to the Circle, leaving fans to wonder whether they would ever get to witness the two flyweight icons compete against one another again.
