Demetrious Johnson hasn’t fought for nearly two years and he announced his retirement from MMA over six months ago but he still hears his name being called out with the latest coming from UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
This past December after he defeated Kai Asakura in the UFC 310 main event, Pantoja declared “I’m the GOAT here, If you want to prove you’re the GOAT, come back.” Johnson quickly shot down that request and reiterated that he’s staying retired but the longest reigning champion in UFC history appreciated that Pantoja took his shot.
“It’s just a testament as what people viewed me as one of the best to fight,” Johnson said about the callout when speaking to MMA Fighting. “People are still seeing me as the king of the division when I haven’t fought for two years.
“I think that it’s a great callout because that probably got more buzz than him beating Kai Asakura. Because not everybody knew who Kai Asakura was. That’s just my viewpoint of the fan interactions, social media hits. We took that social clip and we clipped it and it made us like $1,000 to be honest with you. Just from the metrics alone when we look at things, that’s kind of what I do now and that’s what we viewed it as.”
While he has no plans to ever fight again much less return to the UFC to challenge Pantoja, Johnson gives the reigning flyweight champion his flowers for the resume he’s put together in recent years.
Pantoja has won his past seven fights in a row including three consecutive title defenses, which is why Johnson puts him at the top of his own personal list for the best flyweight in the sport right now.
“Oh absolutely, 100 percent,” Johnson said about ranking Pantoja at No. 1. “Him and Kyoji Horiguchi [at the top]. Kyoji Horiguchi hasn’t been fighting the top quality opponents that Alexandre Pantoja has fought.
“Alexandre Pantoja just beat Kai Asakura. Kai Asakura has a win over Kyoji Horiguchi. Kyoji Horiguchi has a win over Kai Asakura and then when you look at what Pantoja [has done]. He beat Brandon Moreno. Pantoja’s beating everybody right now. I would put Alexandre Pantoja at the very top.”
An interesting wrinkle to those personal rankings is how Johnson views the fighters in his old stomping ground at ONE Championship where the last person to hand him a defeat is competing for a vacant flyweight title on Sunday in Japan.
Adriano Moraes, who scored a vicious knockout over Johnson back in 2021 before dropping two in a row to him in a pair of rematches, faces off with Yuya Wakamatsu at ONE 172 to crown a new flyweight champion.
It’s the belt that Johnson vacated when he retired from the sport but despite saying “flyweight” on the title, he actually doesn’t consider that a championship for the same division where he competed in the UFC.
Because ONE Championship employs a different set of weight classes in an attempt to curb extreme weight cutting, flyweights there actually compete closer to 135 pounds. That’s why as much as Johnson respects Moraes as a legitimate competitor, he wouldn’t categorize him alongside Pantoja.
“When you look at the guys, we’ve seen Adriano perform at 135,” Johnson explained. “When you look at what Alexandre Pantoja’s been able to do, even for myself when I was fighting in ONE Championship, I put myself in the bantamweight category. Because when you have to cut an extra 10 pounds to perform at a high level, that shit matters. A lot of people don’t realize it does — it does. I wouldn’t put Adriano in that flyweight division that’s at 125 in the UFC. Because he’s not cutting those extra 10 pounds. He’s fighting hydrated. He’s fighting fully nourished whereas Pantoja’s cutting an extra 10 pounds. I would put Adriano in the boat as if he’s fighting the bantamweights. That’s how I look at the scheme of things.
“When I was at ONE Championship and I was at 135, I compared myself at the time fighting a guy like Aljamain Sterling because Aljamain Sterling is 135.”
Regardless of weight classes, Johnson walked away from his trilogy against Moraes with a newfound respect for the Brazilian because those matchups forced him to learn, adapt and grow into a better fighter.
“He’s really good,” Johnson said about Moraes. “Very big and long for the weight class. It’s definitely a huge transition for me coming over from the UFC fighting guys who are 5-foot-3, 5-foot-4 — if you look at my generation of me, Joseph [Benavidez], Ian McCall, John Dodson, Chris Cariaso, Kyoji Horiguchi — we were all smaller guys.
“When you go fight a guy like Tim Elliott, I’ve always had hard times with guys that are longer. Dominick Cruz [is another one]. Then you have Adriano, who’s f*cking 6-foot-2 and 135, it’s hard to make adjustments and I felt like when I fought him the first time, it was hard to gauge that distance and mess with that void. The second fight, I was like I got it. Then in the third fight, it was a great fight because we knew each other so well that I ended up beating him up in the clinch.”
Regardless of weight classes, Moraes seeks to add another belt to his trophy case on Sunday while Pantoja continues to wait for his next assignment as he seeks to chip away at the long list of records that Johnson set in the UFC.
Considering the UFC nearly dumped the entire 125-pound men’s division a few years ago, Johnson is proud to see the weight class doing well there as well as what’s happening in ONE Championship currently. No matter what happens in either spot, Johnson promises he’s not coming back to defend his turf.
“Being 38, I’m at the water park with my daughter not worrying about my next fight,” Johnson said. “This shit right here is priceless. There’s not a belt out there that’s going to be able to give me the satisfaction I have now.”
