Who is Rodtang Jitmuangnon, the Muay Thai fighter scheduled to face Demetrious Johnson in a mixed MMA bout?
![Rodtang Jitmuangnon [Image Courtesy: @rodtang_jimungnon on Instagram]](https://staticg.sportskeeda.com/editor/2021/09/bb84e-16318074247231-800.jpg?w=500)
Rodtang Jitmuangnon is a 24-year-old Muay Thai practitioner. He's set to face off against Demetrious 'Mighty Mouse' Johnson, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time
Rodtang currently holds a professional Muay Thai record of 267 wins and 42 losses. He is currently signed to ONE Championship, where he's gone 10-0 and claimed the promotions Muay Thai flyweight title in the process.
However, as experienced as Rodtang may be in Muay Thai, he is yet to compete in a professional mixed martial arts fight.
Rodtang Jitmuangnon vs. Demetrious Johnson
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong recently announced that there will be a unique superfight between Rodtang Jitmuangnon and Demetrious Johnson.
The rules of the fight harken back to the early days of MMA. It merges two different sports into one event. There are set to be four rounds, which will alternate between Muay Thai and MMA. With two rounds of each discipline, the bout is set to be an intriguing affair.
Chatri just announced ONE Championship X on December 5th.
Demetrious Johnson vs. Rodtang. Dear god
R1 - Muay Thai
R2 - MMA
R3 - Muay Thai
R4 - MMA
Speaking on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Sityodtong gave the following reasoning for the decision to adopt such a unique ruleset for this fight.
“It’s so intriguing. Rodtang has three minutes to try to knock out DJ, but if DJ survives, there’s a lot of pressure on him. Because Rodtang then has to survive three minutes of DJ’s explosive wrestling and submissions. DJ is probably not gonna strike with him.”
You can check out the full episode of The MMA Hour, featuring Chatri Sityodtong, below:
The fight will take place on December 5 at an event titled ONE X. However, Rodtang vs. Johnson is not the only high-profile fight on the card. ONE Championship's current bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes will face former UFC fighter John 'Hands of Stone' Lineker.
There is also another title fight set to go down. Current 145-pound champion Thanh Le will finally return from injury to defend his title. The challenger will be Gary Tonon, a multi-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu No Gi world champion, who currently boasts a perfect 6-0 professional MMA record.