Demetrious Johnson

Johnson was raised in Parkland, Washington, where he attended Washington High School and excelled in track, wrestling, and cross-country. He was born in Kentucky. He finished third and second in the state in wrestling during his junior and senior years. He only competed in track and cross country to increase his cardiovascular fitness for wrestling, yet he competed in both events at the State Championships.

Johnson did receive wrestling scholarship offers, but he did not want to uproot his family. In the end, he decided against accepting any scholarship offers and instead spent two years working while attending Pierce College.

In 2007, Johnson started a mixed martial arts (MMA) career and won his first match by way of a first-round knockout. Later, Johnson made appearances on a number of regional programs and won his next eight fights, including five straight by submission. Johnson won his bout in the Alaska Fighting Championships in Anchorage by way of a head-kick knockout, which led to a contract with the WEC.

On April 24, 2010, at WEC 48 in Sacramento, California, he faced off in his bantamweight debut match against Brad Pickett. Despite consistently displaying strong kickboxing, Johnson was unable to stop Pickett’s several takedowns. Johnson received a unanimous defeat.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting joined on October 28, 2010. All WEC fighters were moved to the UFC as part of the merger. In his UFC debut on February 5, 2011, Johnson competed against Japanese superstar Norifumi Yamamoto at UFC 126. Johnson prevailed by unanimous decision. On May 28, 2011, Johnson was slated to take on Renan Baro at UFC 130. But when Brad Pickett, Miguel Torres’ opponent, was pulled off the card due to an injury, Johnson took on Torres.

On October 1, 2011, Johnson competed for the UFC bantamweight championship against Dominick Cruz at UFC Live: Cruz vs. Johnson. Johnson was defeated by a unanimous decision. On March 3, 2012, at UFC on FX 2, Johnson and Ian McCall squared off in the Flyweight Tournament’s opening round. The first flyweight match in UFC history occurred in this contest.

Johnson was declared the winner by a majority decision in the bout with McCall after all three rounds of action. afterward, during the press conference following the bout. Johnson vs. McCall was a rematch that took place at UFC on FX on June 8, 2012. Johnson advanced to the tournament’s championship round by virtue of winning the bout by unanimous decision.

On August 4, 2018, Johnson and Cejudo squared off again for the UFC Flyweight Championship. Johnson’s championship reign came to an end after a record 11 consecutive successful title defenses when he was defeated by Cejudo in a split decision. He won the Fight of the Night prize for this battle. Out of 25 media outlets, 13 gave Cejudo the win in the fight, while 12 gave Johnson the win.

Johnson will compete against Yuya Wakamatsu at ONE Championship: A New Era on March 31, 2019, the first event for the promotion in Japan, it was revealed on December 19 of last year. Johnson won his first match in the ONE Championship by submitting Yuya Wakamatsu with a guillotine choke in the second round.

On August 2, 2019, ONE Championship: Dawn of Heroes hosted Johnson’s second ONE Championship match. He met Tatsumitsu Wada in the ONE Flyweight Grand Prix semifinals and prevailed by unanimous decision to go to the championship round.

On October 12, 2019, Johnson competed against Danny Kingad in the ONE Championship Flyweight Grand-Prix finals at ONE Championship: Century. He won a resounding unanimous decision game against Kingad.

According to a source, Johnson would face Adriano Moraes again for the ONE Flyweight Championship on June 2, 2022, at ONE on Prime Video 1. In order to win the ONE Flyweight Championship, Johnson would go on to knock Moraes out in the fourth round with a flying knee. With this victory, he was given the Performance of the Night prize. On May 5, 2023, at ONE Fight Night 10, Johnson and Moraes will square off in their trilogy match.