“Two GOATs” - Fans look back at the historic mixed-rules bout between MMA legend Demetrious Johnson, Thai icon Rodtang

In March 2022, history was made by Demetrious Johnson and ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon as they faced each other in a mixed-rules super-fight. The bout at ONE X went down inside the packed Singapore Indoor Stadium.

This four-round flyweight contest that alternates the ruleset of Muay Thai and MMA per round was the first of its kind in ONE Championship, and the promotion relived this entertaining match by reposting it on Instagram recently.

They captioned the post with:

“The historic special rules super-fight between Demetrious Johnson and Rodtang 🚀🤩💥 @mighty⁠ #ONEChampionship #MartialArts #MuayThai #MMA”

The match began in the Muay Thai ruleset in the opening round, and as expected, Rodtang went all out in his attack by marching forward and throwing his powerful strikes against Johnson. However, the full three minutes were not enough for him to come away with the victory.

In the second round, the ruleset was changed to MMA, and the tables were turned as ‘The Mighty Mouse’ became the aggressor and ‘The Iron Man’ was the more defensive fighter due to the threat of the takedown.

Johnson, however, maximized his time to get the finish, as he was successful in securing a takedown against Rodtang and eventually put him to sleep via rear-naked choke. It was the Jitmuangnon Gym representative’s first defeat in ONE Championship in any ruleset and Johnson’s fourth victory in the promotion.

Because of this exciting and enjoyable matchup, fans gave their flowers to both combat sports superstars and praised ONE Championship for creating such a fun matchup, as Instagram users @sinoe.mau_, @ramen_king1, @dogscansurf, @van.zurich4, @axel_maano, and @wewe_pitbull commented:

“mouse was pretty good for Rodtang”

“Might mouse held his own standing”

“Two of the most impressive fighters of all time. Special rules are💯”

“damn. both just respect. always sad to se a stand up fighter getting ssubmitted"

“I love this fight 🙌👏🔥 Muay Thai x MMA”

“Two GOATS 👏”

Screenshot of fan's comments

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Demetrious Johnson and Rodtang experienced respective success after their ground-breaking match

After their mixed-rules superfight, both Johnson and Rodtang went back to their respective sports and dominated their way to the top. Johnson avenged his lone loss in ONE Championship by beating Adriano Moraes twice to become the undisputed ONE flyweight MMA world champion.

Meanwhile, Rodtang has fought five times since that fight with Johnson and won four of them to retain his 26-pound golden belt. He is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Superlek Kiatmoo9 from their 140-pound Muay Thai superfight in September 2023 at ONE Friday Fights 34.