Adriano Moraes Willing To Give Demetrious Johnson Rematch
Adriano Moraes says he’s open to giving Demetrious Johnson a second crack at the ONE Flyweight Title.
Moraes handed Johnson an upset loss on April 7 to successfully retain the flyweight gold. Moraes scored the second-round knockout finish. It’s “Mighty Mouse’s” first loss since August 2018.
During an interview with MMAJunkie, Moraes said that for all that Johnson has done for the flyweight division, he’d be willing to grant him a rematch.
“I know Demetrious Johnson is the greatest of all time,” Moraes said. “I think if the company thinks he deserves a rematch, of course, we’re gonna give him a rematch. But we have a lot of killers here in the flyweight division who I think deserve the shot. For me, I’m gonna keep my focus on my path. I’m gonna rest a little bit and come back to the gym and start all over again, and let’s see what’s gonna happen. The flyweight division here in ONE Championship is so dynamic, there are a lot of fighters, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
Moraes’ win over Johnson marked the first successful title defense in his current reign. Fans unfamiliar with ONE Championship rules mistook Moraes’ knee as an illegal strike. Kneeing a downed opponent to the head is legal in ONE.
Johnson, himself, said he likes ONE’s ruleset and wouldn’t change them simply because he lost a fight.
“Like I said, it ended the fight. I wasn’t stalling one bit. I was trying to get up and fight, and I got blasted with a knee. My very first fight in ONE Championship, I did it to Yuya Wakamatsu and ended up getting the finish. The rule is meant to be there to keep the fight progressing and end the fight. So if Adriano wasn’t able to land that knee, yes, I would have still been in that fight, so he would have had to do something totally different. I’m totally content with what happened. I’m not like, ‘That rule should be taken out.’ That’s what the rule was, Adriano used it to his advantage, and I was on the other end of the stick.”