Demetrious Johnson is one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport and for quite some time, a potential match against top BJJ competitor Mikey Musumeci has been floated around. ONE Championship have both men under contract and they’ve been working hard behind the scenes to book the match, although they’ve never quite managed to do so. With Johnson announcing his retirement from MMA it seemed increasingly unlikely, although he did reveal that he would still be competing in BJJ tournaments. That kept a glimmer of hope alive for the match, but now it seems like the chances of it happening have finally reached zero.
Johnson sat down with Ariel Helwani and he was asked about any opportunities he’d had since announcing his retirement. The potential matchup with Musumeci was the first thing that came to his mind:
“They offered me to do a superfight with Mikey Musumeci. They’re like ‘hey, what do you think about doing a grappling match with Mikey?’ and then we were going back and forth like with the price, and we just couldn’t come to terms. Then they were like ‘how about a superfight with Mikey Musumeci? We’ll do one round grappling and one round mixed martial arts?’ I was like ‘guys, I truly don’t care about fighting.’”
For his part, Demetrious Johnson was open about wanting a match against Mikey Musumeci at first. It was clear that negotiations were underway for the match for several months and it did genuinely seem close at different points in time. Musumeci was even confident enough about it to say that it would be his next match half way through 2023. Obviously that prediction never came true and although the idea of a mixed rules match between the two men with both grappling and MMA rounds might seem far-fetched, ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong actually outlined his plans for that before.
The proposal isn’t without precedent either, as Johnson famously beat Muay Thai legend Rodtang Jitmuangnon in a mixed rules fight with alternating Muay Thai and MMA rounds. He explained that there was a key difference between the two fights though:
“I’m happy those opportunities came to me because I remember when I was on the couch and they called me to fight Rodtang (Jitmuangnon) and I was like ‘let’s f***ing do it, let’s lace it up!’ I called Matt (Hume) and Matt was like ‘let’s get it!’ but when those opportunities presented itself I was like ‘nah, I don’t really care’. I’ve been getting opportunities from Jiu-Jitsu competitions to go out there and grapple some monsters but I’m like ‘I don’t care’.”
It might seem strange for Demetrious Johnson to have no interest in a grappling match with Mikey Musumeci and other elite competitors given that he is still competing in BJJ tournaments at black belt, but he was clear about the reasons behind that choice:
“For me Jiu-Jitsu is fun. I get to go out there and just compete and not worry about trying to get a big paycheque or anything like that, or do press-conferences and all that stuff. Maybe one day I might get to that point but right now it’s truly fun. I’ve signed up to this tournament, I pay my $150, I pay my IBJJF yearly membership, and I show up like a weekend warrior. I go to work and then after the tournament is done I go home.”
It makes sense too, there’s a massive difference between showing up at the IBJJF Master World Championship once a year and competing for Polaris or another major organization. For now it seems as though fans will have to settle for seeing Johnson appear at the occasional tournament against other older black belts. Although that might not seem like much, it’s still far more than the majority of retired professional MMA fighters choose to do.
The full interview with Demetrious Johnson where he discusses turning down the match against Mikey Musumeci was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Ariel Helwani show:
