Chatri Sityodtong opens door for Demetrious Johnson executive role at ONE: “He’s capable of many things”

ONE Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong had to bid his greatest mixed martial arts fighter an emotional farewell last weekend at ONE 168: Denver, when MMA legend and now former ONE flyweight MMA world champion 'Mighty Mouse' Demetrious Johnson called it a career.

Johnson laid down his gloves at center-Circle and delivered a moving speech, while he rode off into the sunset.

After the events, Sityodtong then left the door open for Johnson to rejoin ONE in an executive role.

He said:

"The way DJ and I have talked about it, we don’t know how the future is gonna unfold. But I said ‘DJ, I want you to be part of the team.’ Whether it’s a brand ambassador, whether he decides to be a VP, I think he brings a lot of, he’s obviously phenomenal at business too. But you know he’s been building a brand with his podcast and stuff. He’s just a very smart, smart, high IQ person so he’s capable of many things but I just thought, let’s see. He and I will sit down and talk about it later and figure it out, but we definitely, I think both of us are relying [on the fact that] we wanna work together in some capacity."

ONE Championship is famous for having former athletes at the top of the company helping to run operations.

They currently employ MMA icon Rich 'Ace' Franklin as Vice President, and in the past have even had women's MMA pioneer Miesha Tate holding office.

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Demetrious Johnson on what he has prided in the most in his legendary career: "I'm the easiest athlete to work with"

One of the biggest reasons fans love Demetrious Johnson is because he's just an upstanding individual. He's never been involved in any controversy, did no performance-enhancing drugs, and always conducted himself in a professional manner.

All of this while fighting at the top of the MMA mountain as one of its consensus GOATs.

He said on the mic at ONE 168:

"hard worker, you know. Hard-worker, I'd probably say from what I've achieved in mixed martial arts, I'd probably say I'm the easiest athlete to work with. Never failed a drug test, every single time the USADA came to me, I made it happen."

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action of ONE 168: Denver via replay on demand via Amazon Prime Video.