Demetrious Johnson, one of the most dominant champions in mixed martial arts history, suffered a crushing defeat to Adriano Moraes on Wednesday during an important night for the Asian promotion ONE Championship.
The ONE Championship event took place in Singapore and was broadcast live in the US on TNT, marking the company’s first live broadcast on US television.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, Johnson (30-3-1) was an obvious candidate to headline. As a UFC Flyweight Champion, he set the record for consecutive title defenses, defending the belt 11 times from 2013 to 2018.
But it was Moraes (19-3) who took the opportunity and knocked Johnson out with a bad knee strike at 2 minutes, 24 seconds from round two to keep his flyweight title. The knee would have been illegal under MMA rules in the US because Johnson was in a grounded position when he was hit, but those attacks are allowed under the ONE Championship banner in Asia.
“I have to go back home and watch the fight, see when I made mistakes,” said Johnson, 34, who had never been knocked out before Wednesday. “Adriano is very tall, big. It was hard to get hold of him. This is part of the game. You stay in this game long enough, this will definitely happen at some point, right?”
Moraes, from Brazil, had waited years for the opportunity to fight Johnson. Although the fight for the title was flyweight, it actually fought at 135 pounds as the ONE Championship weight divisions have been changed from those in the US to discourage extreme weight loss. Moraes first won a title in ONE Championship in 2014. He lost the belt in 2015, before regaining the undisputed title in 2017.
Moraes’ length and reach advantage presented Johnson with significant problems early on. While there wasn’t much offense in the opening round, it was clear that Johnson was struggling to beat his lean opponent, and he struggled to match Moraes’ physicality on the ground. Moraes almost landed with a standing knee on the second round, just before a right uppercut dropped Johnson and when the final knee strike left him cold.
ONE Championship has a few more live events scheduled on TNT this month, although Wednesday’s map offered by far the best lineup in terms of brand awareness in the US.
Alvarez-Lapicus ends in a quick disqualification
In addition to the flyweight main event, ONE Championship promoted a lightweight bout between former Bellator MMA and UFC champion Eddie Alvarez and the promotion’s No. 2 ranked lightweight, Iuri Lapicus. The co-feature had an unfortunate ending, in which Alvarez (30-8) was disqualified in the first round for punches to the back of the head.
Alvarez, from Pennsylvania, scored an early elimination and pinched Lapicus’ legs beneath him along the fence. When Alvarez started throwing wide right hands from the top position, Lapicus turned his head towards the fence, exposing the back of his head. Alvarez kept throwing shots until Lapicus reacted badly to one of them and fell back to the canvas.
The action was interrupted when the referee called an illegal blow and separated the fighters. Alvarez immediately disputed the legality of the beatings, but later only expressed concern about Lapicus’s health.
“Iuri turned his head the other way, and the referee warned me, ‘Back of the head!’” Said Alvarez. “When you see it, I take my head and push his head to the side where the punches came from. Besides, I thought as long as I hit the ear, I thought it was legal. Calling the referee anyway is fine. I hope Iuri is all right. This game is so dangerous, all I care about is keeping everyone safe. “
Had Alvarez won the race, he would have been one step closer to the battle for ONE’s lightweight championship. As it is now, he suffers his third defeat in four fights.