Demetrious Johnson is 36 years old and near the end of his magnificent MMA career. But his conditioning is still elite and it is what led him to victory in his rubber match with Adriano Moraes on Friday in the main event of ONE Championship’s U.S. debut.
Johnson slowly broke Moraes down, using knees and winning exchanges in the clinch. Referee Herb Dean was constantly badgering the fighters to work and gave Moraes a hard warning for holding in the third.
But Johnson kept working throughout and scored a workmanlike unanimous decision victory to retain his ONE flyweight title at the First Bank Center in Broomfield, Colorado, in what may have been the final fight of his illustrious career.