“I give myself four more fights” - Demetrious Johnson sets timeline for retirement
Demetrious Johnson has been a dominant force ever since beginning his mixed martial arts career nearly 17 years ago. In that time, ‘Mighty Mouse’ has captured multiple world championships and has established himself as the greatest flyweight fighter of all time and one of the pound-for-pound best in the world.
However, at 36 years old, Johnson recognizes that he is in his twilight years despite competing at an elite level. Speaking with a friend and famous podcaster Joe Rogan, DJ revealed that he feels as though he has four fights left before walking away from the world of combat sports:
“I can't’ fight forever. I’m 36 so I told myself four more fights, which would be two years,” Johnson said during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. “Two fights a year, right, but then as I get older I find things pulling me away from that like my children, my businesses, my wife, I wanna travel with her. There are so many things I wanna do.”
Since signing with ONE Championship in 2019, Demetrious Johnson has already accomplished a lifetime’s worth of achievements, including a ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix championship and a win over Muay Thai icon Rodtang Jitmuangnon in the promotion’s first-ever mixed-rules bout.
Johnson followed up his victory over ‘The Iron Man’ by capturing the ONE flyweight world title, defeating former titleholder Adriano Moraes with a spectacular flying knee knockout at ONE on Prime Video 1 in August.
Demetrious Johnson hopes for four more fights, but can’t guarantee his body will hold up
While Demetrious Johnson’s work inside the Circle looks practically effortless at times, the fact remains that the aging flyweight superstar is finding it harder to recover after each fight.
While DJ is hopeful that he can give fans at least four more fights over the next couple of years, he can’t be certain his body will heal fast enough to meet that goal:
“I give myself four more fights and sometimes I look at it and I’m like ‘sh*t it might be two’ because my body doesn’t heal as fast. It just doesn’t.”
Nevertheless, Demetrious Johnson remains focused on being an active ONE world champion, but nearing the end of his career, ‘Mighty Mouse’ is looking to branch out and try different things on for size as he approaches retirement:
“We’ll see. I’m just trying to stay focused, do different things. I always tell people it’s important to focus on what makes you most of your money, but you have to branch out to do different things.”