Demetrious Johnson happy to get a chance to guest-commentate ONE Fight Night 6
He may not have fought in the cage, but Demetrious Johnson did have a strong presence at ONE Fight Night 6 last week in Bangkok.
ONE Championship brought in the flyweight world champion to join the commentary booth for the last few fights of the card, offering his well-respected expertise to break down the action.
Although many have the technical knowledge to understand the fast movements of martial artists, very few have the vocal clarity to articulate it on the mic to fans. Johnson recently spoke with the South China Morning Post about the challenge of fight night commentary:
"It was good. The biggest thing for me when I call these fights, I’ve been in front of the camera for 18 years, from my mixed martial arts fights to my gaming channel and all that stuff. To be able to call such high-level athletes fighting, it’s easy. I can pick out what they’re doing so well and what they need to do."
Demetrious Johnson has also had plenty of time to practice polishing his on-air presence via his Twitch channel, where he live streams his gaming adventures to approximately one hundred seventy-five followers whenever he picks up the controller.
Johnson’s presence in the booth was a welcome addition due to his present-day experience fighting for ONE Championship and his extensive grappling knowledge. This specialized knowledge came through, especially in the grappling world title fight between Mikey Musumeci and Gantumur Bayanduuren.
Demetrious Johnson thankful for chance to roll with Garry Tonon and other high-level grapplers
In the same interview, Demetrious Johnson spoke about his recent experience training with such elite grapplers as Garry Tonon and Mikey Musumeci.
A brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt himself, Johnson said of the experience,
"Garry Tonon is an absolutely amazing grappler and a great human being as well. It was good to actually get a chance to just mix it up with him. Those guys, Garry, Mikey Musumeci, and Gordon Ryan. Just the New Wave team. I know Mikey isn’t with the New Wave team. The Ruotolo brothers, all those guys, IBJJF, and ADCC. They’re just on a different level when it comes to grappling. I wanted to be able to see what it felt like."
Even in the commentary booth, Demetrious Johnson was asked about the possibility of crossing over to ONE’s grappling division to challenge world champion Mikey Musumeci.
'Mighty Mouse' seemed content to stay in his lane with MMA and was happy to let Musumeci continue to trash the legs of challengers and keep the belt. However, with world champions crossing over from one sport to another under the ONE Championship umbrella, witnessing a match like Demetrious Johnson vs. Mikey Musumeci won't come as a surprise down the line.