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“Mighty Mouse” was diagnosed with SIBO, a condition that affects the small intestine, in April after his first ONE fight.
Demetrious Johnson has been cleared of the serious condition he has been battling since April.
The former UFC flyweight champion and current ONE Championship contender no longer has small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), he announced Tuesday in an Instagram video.
“I’m super excited,” Johnson said. “I was almost in shock when [the doctor] said, ‘It’s all gone. You got no more SIBO.’ I was like, ‘What? Are you sure?’”
Johnson was diagnosed with SIBO, a condition that affects the small intestine, less than a month after his successful ONE debut in March, he told Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show earlier this month.
SIBO occurs “when bacteria that normally grow in other parts of the gut start growing in the small intestine,” according to Health Line. Some symptoms of SIBO include stomach pain, bloating, and unintentional weight loss.
Johnson found out he had SIBO after returning home from a ONE athlete retreat in April.
“We ordered pizza — we were about to go to Florida — and I had like six slices of pizza,” Johnson said earlier this month. “Next thing you know, my stomach is just jacked up. And I was like, ‘Huh, that’s unusual.’ I eat whatever I want — Cinnamon Toast Crunch, whatever I want.
“We went to Florida, and I tried to clean up my diet. But it just kept on being painful, painful, painful. I would go out to eat, have a big meal, all healthy, and next thing you know, I’m just passing gas like that. Next thing you know, I was like, ‘Something is wrong. I gotta go see a doctor.”
Johnson, who won the ONE flyweight grand prix Oct. 12 with a win over Danny Kingad, battled SIBO throughout his past two training camps. He was on antibiotics for both of them. Johnson was also lighter than usual during his bout with SIBO, he said — about 136 pounds, just over the weight he competes at, as opposed to his usual walk-around weight of 140.
Despite suffering from SIBO at the same time, Johnson defeated Tatsumitsu Wada and Kingad in his second and third ONE appearances, respectively.
After the Wada fight, Johnson was tested for SIBO again but still had it. His doctor upped the antibiotic dosage for his next training camp ahead of his tournament victory.
While he had SIBO, everything Johnson ate was “to order,” he said Tuesday. For example, if he ate out at a restaurant and ordered a steak, he ensured it was served very plain and had none of the “delicious stuff that makes that steak taste good.”
Now free of SIBO, Johnson said that the hardest part will be introducing certain foods to his diet. He said he missed being able to eat sushi and fried chicken, among other things, but isn’t sure he’ll be able to eat them now that he knows there’s “so much sh-t in” them.
That said, Johnson is very glad to be able to put SIBO behind him.
“I’m happy that I can now try to start putting weight back on my body,” Johnson said. “And [that I don’t have] to pop antibiotics like candy to try to kill this thing,”