By:  | August 27, 2022 12:01 pm

Demetrious Johnson well and truly got his revenge on Adriano Moraes at ONE on Amazon Prime 1 this morning. The American knocked out the Brazilian with a flying knee in the fourth round to become the new flyweight champion.

Moraes had started the fight at the Singapore Indoor Stadium strongly and spent a lot of time in top position during the first two rounds. But Johnson was busy on his back and opened up a bad cut above his opponent’s eye with an elbow from bottom position.

In the third round Moraes, who stopped Johnson in the second stanza last year, couldn’t get the fight down and spent a lot of time retreating. The former UFC flyweight champion was applying constant forwards pressure and landed a left right combination with 30 seconds remaining.

Flying knee

In the fourth Johnson was the aggressor again but Moraes countered with a flying knee that appeared to temporarily unbalance the American without doing any real damage. Seconds later he landed an elbow but his opponent was completely unfazed.

Moraes throw a loose looking left hook which Johnson easily evaded before firing back with a right hand of his own. It stunned the Brazilian who had yet to recover when a flying knee to the face knocked him out, finishing the fight and sparking wild celebrations from ‘Mighty Mouse’.

The finish coming at the 3:50 mark and Johnson captures the ONE Championship flyweight title and improves to 24-4. Moraes slips to 20-4 and loses the title he has held since 2019.

Fast finish

The bantamweight Muay Thai title fight between Nong-O Gaiyanghadao and Liam Harrison was expected to produce fireworks but the Englishman never got a chance to get going. A leg kick from the champion early in the round clearly hurt him but he continued fighting.

Another leg kick knocked Harrison to the ground and he was simply unable to get up. The Englishman’s left leg was no longer able to support his weight and he remained on the canvass with Nong-O taking the win at the 2:10 mark.

Best of the rest

Marcus Almeida (4-0) continued his immaculate start to MMA. The Brazilian heavyweight submitted Kirill Grishenko with a heel hook after just 1:04 minutes of the opening round and afterwards paid tribute to his friend Leandro Lo who was murdered in Brazil three weeks ago.

Itsuki Hirata (6-2) left it very late to turn around her fight with Lin Heqin (15-4-1). The Chinese fighter appeared to be on track for a decision win until she was knocked down with a hard right hand in the final seconds which swayed all three judges in favour of the Japanese fighter.

ONE on Prime Video 1, Singapore, August 27th
Demetrius Johnson def. Adriano Moraes via KO (llying knee) at 3:50 of Round 4
Muay Thai: Nong-O Gaiyanghadao def Liam Harrison via KO (Leg kicks) at 2:10 of Round 1
Muay Thai: Panpayak Jitmuangnon def. Savvas Michael via KO (Head kick) at 0:10 of Round 2
Marcus Almeida def. Kirill Grishenko via Submission (Heel hook) at 1:04 of Round 1
Amir Aliakbari def. Mauro Cerilli via TKO (Punches and Elbows) at 4:02 of Round 2
Muay Thai: Superlek Kiatmoo9 def. Walter Goncalves via KO (Elbow) at 1:35 of Round 1
Diandra Martin def. Amber Kitchen via Decision (Unanimous)
Itsuki Hirata def. Heqin Lin via Decision (Unanimous)
Zebaztian Kadestam def. Iuri Lapicus via KO (Punch) at 0:57 of Round 1