"He will be at risk" - Rodtang Jitmuangnon shares Demetrious Johnson's path to victory
Rodtang Jitmuangnon is gearing up to step onto the biggest stage of his career on Friday, August 26. The Muay Thai icon will be part of ONE Championship’s grandest night of fights as the promotion presents ONE on Prime Video 1. Airing during U.S. Primetime, North American fans will finally have access to some of the world’s best combat sports athletes, including 'The Iron Man' himself.
Rodtang will face dangerous Cypriot Savvas Michael in the semifinal round of the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Grand Prix. The winner will move on to the final, which is expected to take place later this fall. They will face the winner of the bout between Walter Goncalves and Superlek Kiatmoo9.
Before getting to the matter of his own fight, Rodtang Jitmuangnon sat down with ONE Championship to share his thoughts on the evening’s main event rematch between ONE flyweight world champion Adriano Moraes and Demetrious Johnson. ‘The Iron Man’ revealed that he believes ‘Mikinho’ will dominate the opposition as he did once before and retain the title.
“I think Adriano will dominate 'DJ' with his well-rounded skills. He can fight in every range. Certainly, 'DJ' is undisputedly an excellent grappler and wrestler, but with his small size, he has to put in much more energy to drop Adriano’s gas tank on the ground game [if he were to get a] submission.”
Rodtang Jitmuangnon believes the only way Adriano Moraes loses to Demetrious Johnson is if the reigning champion "runs out of gas."
One thing that Demetrious Johnson and Adriano Moraes have in common is an impressive gas tank. Both fighters rarely, if ever, have had an issue with cardio, whether they need to push the pace for 15 or 25 minutes. That will likely be a huge factor according to ONE flyweight Muay Thai world champion Rodtang Jitmuangnon.
Doubling down on his prediction that Adriano Moraes will win the sequel bout against ‘Mighty Mouse', 'The Iron Man’ did offer up a way for Johnson to win. A way that largely relies on Adriano Moraes’ conditioning:
“If [Adriano], himself, runs out of gas, he will be at risk. But if 'DJ' gets a chance to choke [his opponent], he will finish Adriano. But in my opinion, I predict Adriano will win once again in this fight.”
While Moraes' chances of struggling to make it through the full 25 minutes are slim, anything can happen. That’s the beautiful thing about combat sports.