Demetrious Johnson underlined his credentials to be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time with a win over Adriano Moraes at ONE on Prime Video 1 last weekend. He didn’t just avenge his defeat to the Brazilian, he did it in style knocking him out with a flying knee in the fourth round.
Johnson was understandably proud of the fight finishing sequence which saw him slip a left hand before rocking Moraes with a right and then finishing the former champion with a flying knee. He describes it as ‘poetry in motion’:
poetry in motion. 😌 pic.twitter.com/M4RvVtFQId
— Demetrious Johnson (@MightyMouse) August 29, 2022
Fight business
But this is the fight business and no sooner had the belt been slung over Johnson’s shoulder than fans were starting to ask ‘who’s next?’ The answer was a surprising one with the newly crowned champion stating that he would be open to a fight with his coach.
Henry Cejudo famously faced Johnson twice when both were on the UFC’s flyweight roster. But they are now firm friends and worked together at Fight Ready in preparation for this bout.
Cejudo is supposedly retired but did a ‘watch along’ for last weekend’s fights during which he told fans he would be open to making a comeback in order to challenge Johnson for his ONE Championship strap.
“Man if there was one guy that I would have loved to have eventually comeback for in flyweight? 100% it would be Demetrious Johnson. 100% it would be. Now it’s a little different. But that was one fight I always felt would be the biggest. Think about it. That would be the biggest trilogy fight in mixed martial arts history. Two division champ vs the guy with the most title defences in UFC history. Man that sounds so good.”
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Crazy money
His co-host and fellow UFC fighter Mark O’ Madsen repeated the question and Cejudo made it clear that the two men would not let their friendship get in the way of a lucrative third fight,
“Me and Demetrious, we’re crazy not to fight each other. If it brings in money, we can put the friendship aside and make more money.”
Johnson was asked about it in the wake of his win over Moraes and made it clear that he would be open to a fight with Cejudo,
“If the money was crazy enough I’m sure me and Henry would do it. Me and Henry we’re chill. I know we would fight because I know he’s got to make a lot of money for diapers for his baby. I know he wants more kids! If me and Henry did fight, we’ll put it aside and make a lot of money together and after the fight, whoever wins or loses, we’ll buy each other a beer.”
Cejudo hasn’t fought since 2020 but held the UFC flyweight and bantamweight belts when he decided to walk away from the sport. He is a year younger than Johnson who says that his former foe looked extremely sharp during their training sessions in Albuquerque,
“Oh yeah he can hang with me man. Henry Cejudo is still good.”
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Insurmountable obstacles
But there are several potentially insurmountable obstacle that would need to be overcome before the two men could fight on a ONE Championship card,
“He just jumped back into the USADA pool. He’s still under contract with the UFC. He wants that ‘Quadruple C.’ He wants Alex Volkanovski. We’re in two different organizations. There’s a lot of things that’d have to move. Mountains and stuff before that’s even possible.”
So fans probably shouldn’t get too excited about the prospect of Johnson and Cejudo putting aside their friendship in order to fight on a ONE Championship card. But it does sound like the former two division UFC champion is about to make a comeback.
