"Made it a lot further than I thought" - Demetrious Johnson admits he was surprised he reached the final of the 2024 IBJJF Pans

ONE flyweight MMA world champion Demetrious Johnson already has a very strong case to be considered an all-time great in combat sports for his immense body of work, to which he can now add Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) star.

Competing in the 2024 IBJJF Pan Championship just a few days ago, Johnson took home the gold medal in the Master 2 featherweight division and also added a silver medal to his tally after taking part in the brown belt Master 2 absolute division.

However, it was not an easy handful of bouts for him though as one of the obstacles in his way was 6-foot-3, 248-pound Michael Sante Medina in the absolute division.

To many onlookers' surprise, Johnson was able to get the victory over Medina after a hard-fought contest en route to his podium finish.

Even he was surprised at his success in the tournament which he proudly explained on his YouTube channel, 'Mighty':

"We made it a lot further than I thought I was gonna do, I'm not gonna lie, because I don't know what I was going to do against guys who are way [expletive] bigger than me."

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Demetrious Johnson demonstrates his iconic submission maneuver

Johnson is undoubtedly one of the most entertaining competitors in combat sports today with how crafty he is in setting up his offense, and his most prominent one is the 'Mighty Wiz Bar'.

Fans with sharp memories would remember that this was the same move that he used to defeat Ray Borg in October 2017 in his defense of the UFC flyweight world title.

Johnson recently did the maneuver during a training session and gave aspiring fighters the blueprint on how to execute it to perfection.