Demetrious Johnson may be a former multiple time UFC champion, but he says he doesn’t have all of his title belts in his possession.
Demetrious Johnson is one of the most decorated and dominant champions the UFC ever had. “Mighty Mouse” held the undisputed 125-pound title for six straight years and defended it a total of 11 times, the most anyone’s ever had in the organization.
During his time, every UFC champion got a title belt after each defense. But according to Johnson, he only has three in his possession.
“I don’t know [where they all are]. I have my three,” he said in a recent appearance on the MMA Hour. “I have the one I got in 2012, I have the one I tied Anderson Silva’s record — Wilson Reis — then I have the one when I threw Ray Borg up in the air for the armbar.
“So I have those three and then I have my [ONE Championship] Grand Prix belt and I have the ONE Championship flyweight belt.”
According to the 36-year-old Johnson, the belts were supposedly returned back to the UFC warehouse in Las Vegas because they were too heavy to be flown out.
“The other ones, the story was, I got them all to New York,” he explained. I had all of them, and imagine, each belt is 12 pounds. We’re at ESPN, taking a picture, and I was like, alright, I can’t get this all on the flight.
“So [someone] was like, ‘I’ll take them back to Vegas and I’ll send them up to you.’ So they went back to Vegas in the UFC warehouse, and that’s the only thing I know. I don’t know where they’re at.”
Johnson now fights under Singapore’s ONE Championship where he is the 135-pound champion. And he says ONE’s title belts weigh doubly heavier.
“It’s heavy — it’s double the weight [of the UFC belt]. It’s heavy. I think it’s 25 pounds. The UFC is 12, 12.5, I think ONE Championship is 25 pounds.
“When they were like, ‘Hey can you bring the belt?’ I’m gonna tell them, ‘You guys need to make a fake one, just for press conferences because it’s so heavy.’”
Johnson says he isn’t bothered by his incomplete collection because already has the “special, meaningful ones” with him.
“I did [want them], but once again, it was so heavy I couldn’t get them on the plane!” Johnson said. “I had a solid plan. I had them sent back to Vegas and the warehouse and I figured they were going to send them back to me, and I dropped the ball. That’s OK. I got the special ones, I got the meaningful ones.
“If they come, they come. If they don’t, they don’t. If I got all 11 of my belts, I don’t know what I’d do with them.”
Johnson last saw action at ONE on Prime Video 11 late last month, where he evened the score with Adriano Moraes with a fourth-round flying knee KO win to become ONE’s current flyweight champion.