Demetrious Johnson might be openly contemplating retirement but the man has clearly not lost his competitive edge. He entered the IBJJF World Masters this week and emerged with a gold medal.
Johnson was competing as a brown belt in the competition which is for fighters aged 30 and above. It seems his entire family was in Las Vegas to watch the multiple time MMA champion win yet another world title.
At the age of 37 he would not have been one of the younger participants in the tournament. But Johnson has been a brown belt since 2018 and can probably expect a promotion after this victory:
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Six out of six
Johnson was the UFC flyweight champion and has made more successful title defences than any fighter in the promotion’s history. He went on to win the flyweight Grand Prix with ONE Championship before winning the title there.
He was set to face Kairat Akhmetov next. But the Kazakh has been removed from the rankings and is serving a six month ban after testing positive for banned substances.
Johnson is clearly not one to sit around twiddling his thumbs. This might have been his first ever BJJ tournament but having won it so comprehensively, beating six opponents out of six, it is unlikely to be the last.
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Veteran fighter
Johnson was competing at featherweight which is 154.3lbs so he would have been going up against some much larger opponent. But what he might lack in competitive BJJ experience the American more than makes up for in MMA experience.
Johnson is a veteran of 30 MMA fights and 15 of them have had major titles on the line. The 37 year old has never been submitted despite sharing the cage with BJJ black belts on several occasions.
He has scored numerous submission wins of his own. The list of opponents who Johnson has forced to tap out is extremely impressive and consists of Yuya Wakamatsu, Ray Borg, Wilson Reis, Kyoji Horiguchi, John Moraga, Damacio Page and Frankie Mendez.
Last time out Johnson defeated Adriano Moraes by decision to defend his flyweight title at ONE Fight Night 10. It was his second win in a row over the BJJ black belt.
There might not be any obvious contenders for his flyweight title. But ONE Championship has an entire roster of submission grapplers at Johnson’s weight and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him face one of them next.
