Current ONE Championship titleholder and UFC legend Demetrious Johnson has a hot take about the state of MMA.
The year 2024 has been one of the greatest for combat sports in a long, long time. Over in the boxing world, fights such as Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk, Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia, and Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou have been huge. Meanwhile, MMA has had its big moments in the form of the massive UFC 300 card and other bouts such as Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria.
However, if one asks former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson, boxing has a bit of an edge on MMA this year. Speaking on his YouTube channel alongside Ariel Helwani, ‘Mighty Mouse’ gave a bit of a hot take. While he’s an MMA fighter himself, Johnson feels that the sport has lagged behind boxing this year.
Demetrious Johnson explained that Oleksandr Usyk’s victory over Tyson Fury was an especially big moment for him. However, the current ONE Championship flyweight titleholder added that he’s confident that MMA will turn things around. For Johnson, he believes that the tide will turn this weekend with UFC 302’s main event in the form of Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier.
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UFC legend Demetrious Johnson explains why boxing has been better than MMA in 2024
“Right now, I feel like boxing is more exciting than mixed martial arts.” Demetrious Johnson stated in the video uploaded to his YouTube channel. “I mean, there are points in time when mixed martial arts is having it’s peaks. But right now, you just had Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney, Ryan Garcia just popped. We’ll talk about that a little later. Then you had Francis Ngannou who got knocked out by Anthony Joshua.”
He continued, “Then you just had the beautiful Tyson Fury and [Oleksandr] Usyk [fight]. He just beat him and became the heavyweight champion. That fight was absolutely amazing. From round one, to round twelve, I was on the edge of my seat. Right now, we’re sitting here waiting in the MMA world. We’ve got a few things going on over in ONE Championship…But right now, I think the story we’re waiting for is Islam [Makhachev] vs. Dustin Poirier.”
As far as Demetrious Johnson himself goes, ‘Mighty Mouse’ remains unbooked. The flyweight hasn’t competed since his unanimous decision victory over Adriano Moraes in their trilogy bout at ONE Fight Night 10 last May.
What do you make of these comments from the former UFC flyweight champion? Do you agree with Demetrious Johnson?
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