Legendary flyweight Demetrious Johnson has retired from the sport.
Johnson’s announcement was made during the ONE Championship 168 broadcast in Denver, Colorado, and retires as the promotion’s flyweight champion.
The 38-year-old is among those in the conversation among the greatest fighters to compete and the fighter who cemented the UFC’s adoption of a flyweight division beginning in 2012.
Johnson was born in Kentucky but came up in the Pacific Northwest training under Matt Hume at AMC Pankration throughout his career, which took him to several world championships and became one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in history.
After an undefeated amateur career, he turned pro in the summer of 2009 and established a 3-0 record on the regional scene for King of the Cage and AFC in Alaska before joining the WEC.
Because of the limitations of weight classes in this era, Johnson was fighting at 135 pounds and entered WEC as a bantamweight, losing his debut fight to Brad Pickett by unanimous decision on the company’s inaugural pay-per-view event from Sacramento. Johnson rebounded with wins against Nick Pace and Damacio Page that year before transferring to the UFC.
Johnson joined the UFC a year before it opened a flyweight division, so Johnson was still fighting above his proper weight class and earned wins against the late Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Miguel Torres. His biggest fight to date occurred in October 2011 and went five rounds, losing to UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz on the Versus Network.
It was his last bantamweight fight with a tournament launched to create the UFC’s first champion at 125 pounds involving Johnson, Ian McCall, Joseph Benavidez, and Yasuhiro Urushitani.
Johnson and McCall fought to a controversial majority draw in March 2012. After the three-round fight, Johnson was announced the winner by majority decision, but later, it was discovered the scores had been tabulated incorrectly and it should have been rendered a majority draw and forced a “sudden death” round to determine the winner. However, it was too late when the error was noticed and a fourth round couldn’t be fought. The two were rematched three months later and Johnson won by unanimous decision. The final of the tournament occurred at UFC 152 in Toronto where Johnson became the first UFC flyweight champion and its champion for the next six years.
Johnson headlined three Fox cards in 2013 with title defenses against John Dodson, John Moraga, and a rematch where he knocked out Benavidez. His next five title defenses were all on pay-per-view despite Johnson constantly being diminished for his lack of drawing power on pay-per-view when the flyweight division was under scrutiny by the public.
He had a memorable submission win against Kyoji Horiguchi with an unbelievable transition to an armbar and tapped Horiguchi with one remaining in their five-round affair at UFC 186 in Montreal.
He continued to defend his championship with wins against John Dodson, Henry Cejudo, Tim Elliott, Wilson Reis, and Ray Borg as Johnson was on another level from the field of flyweights. The win against Borg was his eleventh title defense and broke the record for consecutive title defenses in the UFC.
Johnson’s number was called in August 2018 when a rematch with Cejudo saw the Olympic gold medalist earn a split decision victory at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to end the historic title reign.
Rather than promote a trilogy with Cejudo, an unprecedented move was orchestrated by the UFC and ONE Championship with a trade involving Johnson being sent to the Asian-based group in exchange for Ben Askren.
Johnson submitted Yuya Wakamatsu in his promotional debut in March 2019 and went on to win the ONE Flyweight Grand Prix and become its champion with ONE’s flyweight division set at 135 pounds.
Johnson dropped the title to Adriano Moraes with a KO in April 2021 but regained the title in a rematch in August 2022 with Johnson scoring the KO. A third fight between the rivals went down in May 2023 and Johnson won by unanimous decision which would be his final fight.
ONE announced that Johnson will become the first inductee into the company’s Hall of Fame and should be a shoo-in for the UFC Hall of Fame.
Johnson holds the record for most consecutive UFC title defenses and is tied with Jon Jones for the most title defenses ever with eleven and retires with a record of 25-4-1.
