Why Demetrious Johnson is the unsung hero of our times
Every sport has its underachievers and its champions. But rarely does it ever happen, well at least in popular opinion, that both categories conveniently merge into each other and steal the well-deserved glory from not only the athlete but the sport itself. As the highly proclaimed "most boring" champion in UFC, the Flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson is one of the many fighters carrying this heavy burden and surprisingly so.
Chances are that if you are reading this article, you know more about MMA than the average Joe who watches Fedor Emelianenko highlight reels for fun (I hope so) and unfortunately, that's how ignorant majority of the UFC watching demographic is.
DJ is an all round mixed martial artist who has given us MMA junkies some truly amazing moments. His footwork, accurate striking, and extremely fluid movement altogether is a pleasure to witness but he has been unable to give the masses (a.k.a people who buy the tickets to watch unrestricted violence ) what they truly desire. And what they desire is satisfaction, satisfaction from quenching their thirst for blood and whatever looks cool in the highlight reel and requires an absolute minimal investment of mental faculties. No wonder fights like these typically cater to people with low attention span.
Promoting a brawl between two fighters that is expected to go on for a round or less until one of them would get knocked out is a move you can't go wrong with. The only way the impatient audience could handle all five rounds is if, by the end of the fight, blood splats are commonplace. But Demetrious Johnson is simply too smart and technically too precise to let any of that happen. His ability to close distance and lands accurate combinations before swiftly moving out of the range is a skill that you cannot acquire if you are not light on your feet and have spent years training to fight at such phenomenal pace.
Beautiful footwork is also a cause as well as an effect of being confident in your abilities. To be intensely focused and have a stoic calm at the same time is what makes a mentally tough competitor, indeed only the very elite practice conditioning their mind as well as their body, the very essence of martial arts. In that regard, Demetrious Johnson certainly operates on another level. It is close to impossible to get under his skin.
If you want to understand Johnson's game, you must not be fooled by appearances. Things are usually much different than what they look like in a 15-second promo. Consider Johnson vs Dodson 1, Mighty Mouse got knocked down with Dodson's counters on more than one occasion. Yes, they made him wobble for a few seconds and he certainly proved he could take some shots but consider how Johnson both outstruck and outwrestled Dodson to score the decision win. Johnson's accuracy spoke for itself.
A skill set like that if added with a drastically improved takedown defense will yield us not only a technically superior athlete who will go the distance, but also keep the opponent guessing throughout by keeping the fight in perpetual motion. Demetrious is as unpredictable as he is technical. A matter that is beyond the scope of casual fans is that the tempo of the fight is usually decided by one dominant fighter who will either have the dominant octagon centre control or just be the more aggressive of the two, he may switch stances or keep constant pressure, doesn't matter as long as he pushes his opponent to keep the game in his forte.
Demetrious Johnson has been doing exactly this and went on to wipe out all of the flyweight division. His title reign is already in one of longest title reigns in all of UFC with 7 successful title defenses. He dreams of beating Anderson Silva's record for defending his middleweight title 10 times.To someone who's acquainted with Johnson's abilities, this dream seems more than reasonable.