“I'm always striving for perfection” - Demetrious Johnson on how rivalry with Adriano Moraes pushed him to be better
Demetrious Johnson was motivated to avenge his 2021 loss against Adriano Moraes. This motivation pushed 'Mighty Mouse' into growing his MMA skills even further beyond what they already were.
In the main event of ONE on Prime Video 1, Johnson got his revenge via KO and was thus able to capture the ONE Flyweight World Championship. The previous loss encouraged the US-born athlete to push himself even more.
While speaking at the ONE on Prime Video 1 post-fight interview, Johnson explained:
"Like I said, this is the first time in my camp, in my whole entire career, that I've actually went out and done different things. You know, I started grappling in a Gi now, working towards my black belt."
He added:
"And then also, you know, I went to Arizona to train with Henry Cejudo and just trying to get better. That's the biggest thing I'm just trying to work on. I'm always striving for perfection."
After this major victory, 'Mighty Mouse' was highly grateful to his training team. He continued:
"My push came back there, and I was like, man, there was a point in the fight that I did this, and he goes, chill, he goes, you just became a world champion again, right? My teammates, you know, James, Tony, they did an amazing job keeping me sharp and pushing me to this level of success.”
Demetrious Johnson discusses Moraes KO win
'Mighty Mouse' Johnson was able to execute a brilliant walk-off knockout against former flyweight king Moraes. The US-born athlete landed a thunderous overhand and flying knee combination.
When it landed, Demetrious Johnson explained that he knew it was over. While speaking with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Johnson said:
“When I hit him with the right hand and I saw in his eyes, that this is gonna be it because I knew that I was going to throw everything I had into this knee, everything. And once that knee landed and you can just feel it, right?..."
He added:
"It was like the spirit bomb from Dragon Ball Z. I don’t know if you watch Dragon Ball Z but when Goku throws that spirit bomb and it lands like 9/10 times the person’s done.”
Demetrious Johnson is the new flyweight king. He earned the illustrious flyweight throne as he knocked out Brazil's Moraes. This was a fourth-round stoppage, thus avenging his loss.