March 29, 2024

UFC Legacies: Demetrious Johnson

A legend in the UFC’s flyweight division.

Known as a legend in the UFC’s flyweight division, Demetrious Johnson is also a contender for one of the best MMA fighters of all time. There’s a lot of fighters vying for that title, as you can imagine, so let’s look over Johnson’s career so you can decide for yourself. Here we have a short rundown of the fighter’s career, from his humble beginnings to where he is today.

Looking over the best of the UFC can help when the UFC fight night prelims next roll around and you need to place a bet. Nothing makes a bet feel more secure than when you recognize a UFC legend in a younger, up-and-coming fighter.

Early Fights

Having schooled as an athlete where he practiced wrestling, Demetrious Johnson refused wrestling scholarships to stay close to his family while attending college. He started with MMA in 2007, where he won his first-ever pro fight with a knockout in the first round. He then fought in the Alaska Fighting Championships and won a place at World Extreme Cagefighting.

In the WEC, Johnson fought as a bantamweight where he caught the attention of Joe Rogan. Rogan accurately predicted that Johnson would make a great flyweight if such a thing existed in the WEC since he was small for a bantamweight fighter.

This would come true in 2011 after the WEC-UFC merger. Johnson stayed as a bantamweight fighter for his first year, with his UFC debut being a much-publicized bout against Norifumi Yamamoto at UFC 126. Johnson won through unanimous decision.

His second fight proved to be more entertaining. Facing off against Miguel Torres at UFC 130, Johnson actually broke his fibula in the second round and still won by unanimous decision. Johnson won by just a single point. What’s more, Johnson showed himself to be a slippery opponent after he broke from a full mount six times.

The Flyweight Championship

After losing to Dominick Cruz in an attempt to secure the UFC bantamweight champion title, Johnson was added to a four-man tournament event where the winner would be crowned the UFC’s first-ever flyweight champion.

On March 3rd, 2012, the first flyweight fight in UFC history took place as Johnson took to the octagon against Ian McCall. All three rounds were fought, after which the judges announced a majority decision in Johnson’s favor. Controversially, this had been mistakenly counted and so a rematch took place soon after, in June. This time, Johnson didn’t win by majority decision, he won by unanimous decision instead, so there was no doubt over if the points were counted correctly.

The last obstacle between Johnson and the UFC flyweight title was Joseph Benavidez at UFC 152. Johnson won through a split decision and was officially the UFC flyweight champion.

His first title defense, against John Dodson, was won through a unanimous decision and also won a Fight of the Night award for both fighters involved. The second defense was against yet another John, John Moraga. A fifth-round armbar submission earned Johnson his first-ever Submission of the Night accolade.

Later title defenses saw Johnson win rematches against Benavidez and Dodson, along with wins against Ali Bagautinov, Chris Cariaso, and Kyoji Horiguchi.

An Olympic Challenge

The main challenger to Johnson’s career as flyweight champion is Henry Cejudo, an Olympic gold medalist for wrestling who turned his ambitions towards the UFC. At UFC 197, Johnson faced Cejudo and won the fight with a first-round TKO, another Performance of the Night.


Johnson went on to beat Tim Elliott and Wilson Reis, both of which then tied Johnson with Anderson Silva for the most successful title defenses. A late-round armbar against Ray Borg pushed this up to 11, the most consecutive defenses in UFC history.

In 2018, at UFC 227, Henry Cejudo would return to face Demetrious Johnson for the UFC flyweight champion’s title. While they won Fight of the Night for the show the two fighters put on, Johnson lost by split decision, and his record of consecutive title defenses was stopped. It also made Cejudo the only fighter to have a gold medal and a UFC champion title.

Shortly after, Johnson was traded from the UFC to Singapore’s ONE Championship, where he still fights to this day.

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