‘Mighty Mouse’ Reveals Reasons He Departed UFC For ONE Championship
MMA’s first major trade became official this past Saturday. Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson was traded to ONE Championship for welterweight champion Ben Askren.
The sport is in a never-before-seen state because of the deal. The UFC has never traded a major star from the promotion. “Mighty Mouse” is arguably the most dominant champion in the promotion’s history. But he was curiously shipped off to a rising competitor two months after he lost his title in a thin split decision.
The decorated former champion touched on his UFC exit in an appearance with reporters via MMA Weekly’s Damon Martin this week. “Mighty Mouse” claimed he simply felt there was nothing left to accomplish in the UFC. With that said, he clarified that he was still on good terms with his longtime employer:
“I leave the UFC with no regrets, on good terms,” Johnson stated. “I believe I accomplished everything I could there, I defended the belt 11 times, I won every single way you can possibly think of — knockout, submission that nobody has ever seen before — I’ve done everything I can over there.”
‘Mighty’s’ Motivation
Moving his focus to his future in ONE Championship, Johnson brought up a different style of martial arts present in Asia. The pound-for-pound legend was excited for the many new possible match-ups and achievements ahead:
“I think me coming to ONE Championship, there’s a lot of new goals, a lot fresh things, a lot of fresh matchups. This is different. The guys in Asia have been doing it since they were three or four years old, they bring a different style of mixed martial arts to the table.”
Tired Of Trash Talk
“Mighty Mouse” delved into another reason why he was growing tired of the UFC. To him, the current focus on trash talk and belittling opponents on social media was not the spirit of martial arts he wanted to be involved with:
“I was always never the biggest fan of all the way people went about promoting their fights in North America. I thought of it in a way as some athletes using it as a way of bullying. A way of trying to gain followers. As athletes on Twitter, why haven’t you signed a contract yet to another athlete and to me I see that as a form of bullying.
“All that’s going to do is stir people to go to that person’s Twitter or social media to say ‘you’re scared’ or ‘you don’t want this’ or ‘you’re chicken’ and when I see professional athletes doing that, that are trying to embody the spirit of martial artists, it just puts a bad taste in my mouth.”
MMA’s True Spirit
Johnson expounded on his view of martial arts and MMA, noting that he was proud of how he carried himself throughout his tenure in MMA. He believes ONE is about respect and testing your skills against another top fighter rather than who can talk the most trash online. He felt he never really fit in the UFC’s current climate of promotion:
“I’m glad I don’t have to go through that whole thing and to be able to carry myself as a true martial artist. I felt I’ve always done that in my time in North America and it’s in everybody’s DNA in Asia.
“It’s always about respect and promoting the fight the correct way as two martial artists going in there, we’re going to test our skills against each other. I’m very looking forward to that way of promoting fights. That was something I just didn’t really fit in.”
True To Himself
“Mighty Mouse” had simply had enough with people telling him he needed to talk more trash in order to become a bigger star. He never resonated with mainstream pay-per-view (PPV) audiences in North America despite the UFC’s attempts to build him up as a star.
It’s obvious they want trash talkers in the mold of Conor McGregor, and Johnson’s critics told him to be just like that. The thing is, he isn’t, and he was tired of people telling to be someone he is not as a result. He’s a martial artist – focusing on the artist part of that statement – not a confrontational person who manufactures a beef that may or may not be authentic.
With that established, he’s looking ahead to a new style and a fresh start for his career (transcribed by MMAjunkie):
“People told me … there’s nothing worse than when I’m at the gym working out and somebody says, ‘Dude, if you want to sell more tickets and get your name on the (next box of) Frosted Flakes, you’ve got to talk more trash.’
“That’s not who I am. I’m not a confrontational person. I do mixed martial arts because it’s something I love, and it helps me express my feelings. I’m an artist when I get to compete. Artists don’t run their mouth and attack people or cause a big scene. They focus and put their energy on what they love to do, which is being a martial artist. What I love to do, which is being a martial artist. So I’m very much looking forward to it.”
