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Reigning ONE flyweight MMA world champion and all-time great Demetrious Johnson recently came in as a guest in The MMA Hour with renowned journalist Ariel Helwani.
One of the highlights of the conversation was Johnson's successful run as a Brazilian Jiiujitsu competitor. Just recently, DJ competed at the IBJJF Pan Championships where he won gold in the -70kg category and silver in the absolutes openweight brackets.
In his first open weight bout, Demetrious Johnson submitted Mike Medina, a man nearly a hundred pounds heavier, with a bow-and-arrow choke:
On his submission win over Medina, DJ said:
“For me, my game is I feel things. When I felt him do something, I was like let go now. I did my outside single [takedown attempt] and I grabbed it and I knew [I could take him down]. It’s funny cause in the gym [ my teammates] we’re saying, ‘If I was him I would have pushed his head down’. You can’t do that. He’s balancing, he has no post over here. I was running the pipe this way, then I went and attacked the other way. It was basic Barzegar. I did that and I took him down.”
Watch the full interview here:
Demetrious Johnson explains why he's still competing at brown belt, not black belt
While Demetrious Johnson is considered one of the greatest grapplers in MMA, submitting black belts while he was still a blue belt, he is still competing in brown belt in BJJ. The consensus MMA GOAT explained why he hasn't been promoted to black belt yet, saying:
“So in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, you have gi and no-gi right? And with my professor, under the IBJJF rules, you have to have a certain amount of years under your belt. So when I went competing in mixed martial arts, my professor Bibiano Fernandes, he would belt me. And he goes 'You're a brown belt now. And in order for you to get your black belt, you need to go back and compete in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in gi.' And he goes, 'I'm not going to give you your black belt until you win some tournaments.' And for me, I don't want to be handed something I truly didn't work for.”
