Knockouts by knee seem to hover around the ONE Championship flyweight title.
In the main event of ONE on Prime Video 1 at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore, Demetrious Johnson got one back on Adriano Moraes, returning the knockout favor by landing a vicious left knee in the fourth round to finish their title fight rematch.
Moraes (20-3) landed a knee to the head of Johnson (24-4-1) to win by knockout in their first meeting at ONE on TNT 1, but this time, the script was flipped, and the former UFC flyweight king was certainly pleased with the outcome.
“It feels good, man,” Johnson said during his post-fight interview. “It was a great fight against Adriano Moraes. I think the first fight we had against each other, you know, he got me. Then when I came home and watched it, I was kind of a little irritated about a couple of things. But we got this one. I wish nothing but the best for Adriano.”
Moraes found success early in the fight. In fact, the now-former champion performed very well in the first two rounds, securing takedowns and landing hard ground strikes on Johnson. In the third round, things began to change as Johnson found his rhythm and began to look like the best flyweight on the planet.
Then, in the fourth round, Johnson timed a beautiful right-hand counter that sent Moraes crashing to the mat, followed by a devastating knee to the head to seal the title win. While the specific technique to the finishing sequence wasn’t planned, the mindset and the approach to the fight were, which allowed Johnson to see things clearly as the fight unfolded.
“It wasn’t something like we drill,” Johnson said. “It’s just kind of like, it’s just, I guess you could say, our stance and how we fight. The biggest thing was just trying to be dynamic and just be fluid and chill.
“When I landed the right hand I saw he was wobbled, I kept my distance, and I saw he was about to run into the cage, I was like, ‘OK, it’s a perfect time.’ And I threw the knee and once I knew that landed, it’s like a kill shot. I was like, ‘OK, that’s game,’ and just walked off.”
With the win, Johnson rebounded from the knockout loss to Moraes in April 2021. It was the first time Johnson was finished in his career, and his first loss after exiting the UFC in 2018.
“I’m just happy that I was grateful to be healthy enough to go out there and put him away,” Johnson said. “It was a great fight. He hit me with some good shots. He was trying to go for a D’Arce, he had me on the ground landing good knees to the head. But you know, I knew it was going to be a tough fight. That’s one of the things I love about competing, you know? There’s a part of me where I hate pressure, I hate all of the eyeballs on me, but then there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Yeah. F*ck yeah, let’s go. Let’s see how hard we can push it. Let’s see if we can push ourselves to that breaking point.'”
If a trilogy with Moraes is on the horizon, Johnson is open to taking on the challenge once again. At 36 with a mindset that is unwavering, Johnson is up for whatever may be next, including a trilogy with former UFC champion and friendly foe Henry Cejudo, if that could somehow come together.
“At the end of the day, I’m at the point in my career I’m just here to have fun, and if I win, I win; If I lose, I lose,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to let the outcome of my wins or my losses dictate my life. If I was on the receiving end of another knee, I would have had the same demeanor and energy right now.”
