MMA star Demetrious Johnson has announced his retirement from MMA competition at 38-years-old.
As ONE Championship’s current flyweight champion, ‘Mighty Mouse’ appeared in the cage at ONE 168 in Colorado last night to officially call time on his 15-year career.
“First off I want to say thank you to the fans,” Johnson said. “You guys have always been amazing to me as I live out my dreams and show my passion through martial arts.
“I want to say thank you to all of my teammates from the very beginning back in 2006 all the way to 2024, it’s been a long journey. Thank you to Matt, thank you to my wife and my children, my mother in law.
“Thank you you guys, you have made me a better person, a better athlete, thank you to my wife for always encouraging me to pursue my passion, my dreams. Thank you to everybody at ONE Championship; the staff, the competition team, social media team, we appreciate you.
“Thank you to Chatri [ONE Championship’s owner] for giving me the opportunity to display my martial arts on this platform. Like I said last time, I sound like a damn mouse, when I came here to Denver, Colorado I told you guys that was potentially my last fight.
“I was not lying, I am done competing in Mixed Martial Arts and I want to say thank you guys so much for giving me the opportunity. I appreciate you guys.”
Johnson first appeared on MMA fans radars back in 2010 when he had a three-fight stint in the WEC promotion, before then moving onto the UFC for what was at the time only his 7th pro-fight.
After winning his first couple of fights in the Octagon Johnson was lined up for his first title shot, which came at bantamweight against Dominick Cruz, which he lost by unanimous decision.
Johnson was clearly undersized for the division, and as luck would have it the UFC’s introduction of a flyweight division led to him going on to fight in a four-man tournament to establish the first champion of the new weight class.
Johnson’s first fight against Ian McCall ended in a majority draw, leading to a rematch that he won by unanimous decision, before going on to beat Joseph Benavidez by split-decision in the final to be crowned champion.
Johnson would go on to enjoy a historic title-reign, with his 11 defenses of the belt setting a new UFC record.
Along the way he’d beat the likes of Henry Cejudo, John Dodson (x2), Joseph Benavidez and Kyoji Horiguchi to name but a few, before losing a rematch against Cejudo in 2018 by split-decision to end his 6-year stint at the summit of the division.
Given that he was still considered one of the sports pound-for-pound best fighters what happened next was bewildering as the UFC announced a swap deal that would see Johnson go to ONE FC, while in return Ben Askren would come to the Octagon.
Johnson was then enrolled in ONE FC’s flyweight World Grand Prix, and won three fights on his way to winning the tournament and being crowned champion.
A shock KO loss via a knee strike then followed against Adriano Moraes in 2021 during a bid to become bantamweight champion, but living up to his reputation as one of the Sports G.O.A.T’s, Johnson went on to defend his flyweight belt a year later by KO’ing Moraes with a flying knee in their rematch, while in the final fight in his career in 2023 he won a trilogy fight with Moraes via unanimous decision, leaving his overall career record standing at 25-4-1.
“They wanted me to leave the belt in here, I ain’t doing that s***,” Johnson said at the end of his speech last night. “I came into this sport as a champ, I’m leaving my black a** as a champ too!”
watch Johnson’s full retirement announcement below.
