“Good for my confidence” - Demetrious Johnson on decision to face Rodtang in mixed rules fight

Demetrious Johnson shared one of the reasons why he decided to face Rodtang in a mixed-rules fight back in March.

Interacting with Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), ‘Mighty Mouse’ believed he checked off one of the wildest fights of his career. Coming off of a painful upset loss against former flyweight titleholder Adriano Moraes the fight before in 2021, Johnson admitted fighting one of the best strikers in the world earlier this year boosted his self-esteem.

Johnson recounted his experience with the Muay Thai phenom and told Rogan:

“It was fun just exchanging with him, and I think having this fight was good for my career and good for my confidence, to come off a loss against Adriano [Moraes] then come back and fight another tough striker.”

Watch the full clip below:

Following Demetrious Johnson’s epic victory over Rodtang, which ended with a rear-naked choke in the first MMA round, the Washington-native used the win as fuel to get back inside the ring to rematch Moraes.

They were pitted against each other again at ONE on Prime Video 1, and after three rounds of battle, Demetrious Johnson’ knocked the Brazilian out with a flying knee to the chin, establishing himself as the new flyweight king of the division.

All that’s left for ‘Mighty Mouse’ to do is wait to get summoned again for his next challenger. The fighter most likely to face him for the world title is runner-up Kairat Akhmetov, who is fresh off his third straight victory at ONE 158 last June. Johnson had mentioned before that Akhmetov is the next logical choice, but at the end of the day, it’s up to ONE Championship to decide.

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Rodtang tells Demetrious Johnson he hits as hard as Jonathan Haggerty

Months following their historic mixed-rules fight, Rodtang and Demetrious Johnson crossed paths again outside the circle.

Since Rodtang is considered by many to be one of the greatest Muay Thai strikers on the planet, Johnson was curious to know if he hit harder than Rodtang’s adversary Jonathan Haggerty.

The 25-year-old star answered honestly:

“Same, Same.”

Watch the funny clip unfold below:

The Muay Thai sensation is headed towards his fourth world title defense against the reigning ONE strawweight Muay Thai world champion Joseph Lasiri at ONE on Prime Video 4.

Meanwhile, on the same fight card, Jonathan Haggerty, the former ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion, is up for his bantamweight debut against Russian slugger Vladimir Kuzmin. Watch the Muay Thai stars in action on Friday, November 18, via US primetime.