Demetrious Johnson says he never trained for flying knee finish of Moraes
ONE flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson is such a legendary MMA fighter that he can come up with fight-ending tricks on the fly. His world title-winning knockout of Adriano Moraes at ONE on Prime Video 1 was one of the cleanest, most picture-perfect flying knees you'll ever see.
As it turns out, however, the now-historic knee strike wasn't something 'Mighty Mouse' planned or even trained for. In a recent "Ask Me Anything" session featuring Johnson on Reddit, he was asked how the fight-ending strike came to be:
Demetrious Johnson sees opportunities in split-second moments and can capitalize on them like no one else. Any lesser fighter would have just let Adriano Moraes hit the deck and finished him on the ground.
DJ, however, wasted no seconds and landed a flush knee strike just as 'Mikinho' fell to the ground. The result was an instant knockout that didn't require 'Mighty Mouse' to follow up with ground strikes. The entire sequence, from DJ's pull-back counter to the flush knee, will forever be etched in MMA lore.
By separating Moraes from his senses that night, Demetrious Johnson avenged the only KO loss of his career. With both fighters at 1-1 in their rivalry, a third bout will define their legacies moving forward. Such will be the future of both warriors as they're bound to collide for a third time in Colorado next month.
ONE Fight Night 10, which will be ONE Championship's first-ever on-ground live event on US soil, will be headlined by a rubber match between Johnson and Moraes. The event will transpire on May 5 at the 1stBank Center in Colorado and is available live and for free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.