By Dan Paulo Errazo
Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson made headlines with his highly-publicized move to ONE Championship late last year. It was a development in the sport of mixed martial arts which shocked the entire industry.
Immediately, a myriad of questions arose as to what pushed the 12-time Flyweight World Champion to compete on the other side of the world, even after establishing a terrific career in the United States.
Johnson revealed some of the reasons why he chose to sign with ONE Championship.
“I’m very excited. It’s a fresh opportunity for me to go somewhere I’ve never been able to compete before,” Johnson said in an interview with Q13 FOX TV.
“I’ve spent most of my career in North America competing against the best, now I’m going over to Asia with ONE Championship and fight the best that they would offer.”
Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, even as he still actively competes. In many ways, he made the flyweight division in the UFC and dazzled with every performance.
Yet given his many accomplishments, Johnson still felt the need to explore outside his comfort zone and eventually discovered a promising opportunity he just could not say no to.
“Well after my last fight I thought I would go, obviously and I sat down and thought to myself ‘What do I want to do next?’ and there’s an opportunity for me to go there and compete in Asia for ONE Championship,” Johnson said.
“So, I talked to my management and said ‘Hey, this is what I want to happen. If I’m able to get out of my UFC contract, let’s see if we can make it happen because I got five years left and I will be doing my career a great disservice if I don’t try it.’ All the great mixed martial artists have done it Fedor, Crocop, Rampage Jackson, Shogun Rua, Wanderlei Silva… the list just goes on.
“For me, if I just settle competing in North America and I never got the chance to compete in Asia, then I would be like Oh man I wish I did it.’”
Aside from his bevy of accomplishments and accolades, “Mighty Mouse” has been known to be a man of principle and values. When he discovered that ONE Championship basically championed the same things he holds dear to his heart, he found it to be a breath of fresh air.
“The best change is that this company believes in a lot of values that I believe in you know? Honor, respect, integrity, and discipline, which goes a long way,” Johnson said.
“Through my whole career in mixed martial arts in UFC and in WEC, I always carried myself as a great athlete and I think in ONE Championship all their athletes do the same thing so it’s a perfect fit.
“You don’t see any type of bogus stuff outside of competition week or anything like that.”
Johnson is excited to take part in the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix, which kicks off on 31 March in Tokyo, Japan. He squares off against Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu in his promotional debut.
“It’s refreshing and ONE Championship is The Home of Martial Arts – The Home of True Martial Arts,” Johnson concluded.
The post Demetrious Johnson Bares His Thoughts on His New Career with ONE Championship appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.