MMA legend Demetrious Johnson made his IBJJF black belt debut and although he started off strong, he wasn’t able to maintain that performance all the way through to another gold medal. Johnson has had huge success competing in brown belt masters divisions recently but this was going to be the first time that he would compete at his new belt level. He was only promoted to black belt a little under 3 months ago and he was already looking to jump into the deep end and compete against the best grapplers in the world at his age by entering the IBJJF Master World Championship 2024.
Obviously Johnson was one of the favorites in his division, but there was a huge number of competitors signed up for the master 2 featherweight division. Johnson scored a takedown in his first match to use his guard-passing and top control to great effect, before finishing his opponent with an armbar. Johnson’s second opponent pulled guard and that led to a much closer match, although he managed to win on advantages. He got the takedown again in his third match and after another close battle, those two points proved to be the thing that won him the match and secured his place in the quarter-final.
With a 3-0 run already, Demetrious Johnson was clearly well-prepared for his black belt debut at the IBJJF Master World Championship 2024. Tomoya Yanagisawa brought that run to an end in the quarter-final though, as he set up an unusual gi choke when Johnson was attempting to pass. Johnson fought the choke for a while but he was forced to tap, with Yanagisawa progressing to the semi-finals. Yanagisawa lost to the eventual champion, Osvaldo ‘Queixinho’ Moizinho, in the next match and settled for bronze in the end. Although Johnson wasn’t able to win a medal in his first black belt tournament, his 3-1 record was respectable and he was one of several legendary competitors stepping on the mats at the event.
The full IBJJF Master World Championship 2024 event replay, including all four matches that Demetrious Johnson had, is available to watch on FloGrappling, click here to subscribe and watch. Johnson also shared footage of all four of is matches in a recent video uploaded to his official YouTube channel:
