The 2010s, arguably the most important decade in the history of mixed martial arts, is coming to a close. One reason why the past 10 years have been so pivotal to the sport is the sheer talent that exists across all divisions – men and women, from flyweight (which didn’t even exist until February 2012) to heavyweight. Simply put, the number of great fighters to grace cages and rings across the world never has been higher.
Here at MMA Junkie, we’ve put together a staff-wide, composite ranking of the top 10 fighters of the past decade, which we’ll reveal Monday-Friday until Dec. 27. Today, we reflect on No. 2: Demetrious Johnson.
****
April 24, 2010. Sacramento, Calif. We didn’t know it at the time, but WEC 48 turned out to be one of the most pivotal mixed martial arts events of the decade.
This marked the WEC’s first and only pay-per-view, as the company’s biggest star, Urijah Faber, tried to regain the featherweight belt he once held, which was then owned by Jose Aldo.
A crowd of 12,555 at Arco Arena thrilled to a who’s who of future stars, from Faber and Aldo to Benson Henderson, Donald Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, and Chad Mendes. Oh, and a wild brawl between Leonard Garcia and Chan Sung Jung still stands all these years later among the decade’s most exciting fights.
Way deep on the undercard that night was a little guy from Seattle making his WEC debut named [autotag]Demetrious Johnson[/autotag]. He went up that night against another fighter known for entertaining scraps, Brad Pickett, in a bantamweight matchup.
The duo threw down in an exciting fight in which the size differential made a difference as Pickett won a unanimous decision.
With the benefit of knowing what’s gone down since, this is going to sound like I am making this up, but I swear it’s true: After the fight, as Johnson walked past me cageside on his way to the back, I thought, “If they had a flyweight division, this kid could really be something.”
As it turned out, the brass at Zuffa, which owned the WEC and ran it as a separate brand, saw the upside of the entire roster, including Johnson. The PPV was a surprise hit, and by the end of the year the roster was absorbed into the UFC.
Can you even imagine the decade playing out without those at 145 and below having a platform on the biggest stage?
[lawrence-related id=276616,191656,166082,94379]
That opened the door to the big leagues for “Mighty Mouse,” where the 5-foot-3 fighter wasted no time proving he belonged. Johnson bounced back from the Pickett loss with a four-fight winning streak speared across the WEC and UFC. The last two of those wins were over a Japanese lighter-weight legend, the late Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, and former WEC bantamweight champ Miguel Torres.
Johnson made it to a bantamweight title shot against one of the truly great champions of the era in Dominick Cruz. He lost a unanimous decision, but so what? Cruz wasn’t losing to anyone in those days, and no one else on this list of pound-for-pound best fighters had to fight bigger opponents because their natural weight class didn’t exist on a major-league level.
Then, the UFC added a flyweight division, and it was there that “Mighty Mouse” truly got to show off his magnificence. Johnson was the UFC’s first 125-pound champ, and until not that long ago the only one.
He beat great fighters like Joseph Benavidez and John Dodson, guys who likely would have been trading the title back and forth had Johnson not been around. Then he beat them both again, each time more convincingly than the first.
Somewhere along the way, Johnson seemed to run out of challengers, and he responded by challenging himself. He finished John Moraga in the fifth round of his hometown fight at UFC on FOX 8, which seemed a response to critics of his string of decision wins. He schooled Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174, all the more impressive considering Baugtinov popped for EPO afterwards and has never been the same since he was caught.
At UFC 186, Johnson appeared to be cruising to victory over future two-promotion bantamweight champion Kyoji Horiguchi, and finished him with one second left in the fifth round. At UFC 197, he steamrolled an undefeated Olympic wrestling gold medalist named Henry Cejudo, winning by first-round TKO.
By this stage of the game, the key drama going into Johnson’s fights wasn’t if he was going to win, but how. What will “Mighty Mouse” pull out of his bag of tricks this time? Those who tuned into UFC 216 got their answer as he threw Ray Borg into the air for a suplex, turned it into an armbar mid-move, and scored yet another fifth-round finish.
The Borg fight marked his 11th successful title defense, which surpassed Anderson Silva’s record for most in a single UFC title reign.
That turned out to be his final successful defense. In one of the greatest fights in company history at UFC 227, Johnson lost a highly debated split decision to Cejudo in a rematch. After the fight, in a memorable moment, Johnson led the way as his entire team applauded Cejudo for his victory.
Why was Johnson able to keep his head so high in defeat? Because he accomplished everything he did while staying true to himself. As the sport’s trash talk spiraled out of control, he stayed above the fray. He just wanted to fight, show off his skills, and go home to his family in Seattle.
Maybe that’s why he was fine with walking away from the UFC, too, and continuing his success overseas with ONE Championship. Johnson’s talents were recognized to the degree he earned the 2017 ESPY for “Fighter of the Year.” Prior to that, the award was all about star power: Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Ronda Rousey, and Conor McGregor were the previous winners.
The UFC’s comfort zone is promoting Chuck Liddell-types or fighters who will do the heavy lifting for them over social media. That the company couldn’t properly market a fighter whose skills were so undeniable he cracked the ESPYs star-power barrier is forever a knock against it.
Some fighters had nice runs for a couple years. Some excelled wire-to-wire over the decade. A few managed to define their divisions and push the limits of what can be accomplished in the cage.
As for those who did all that and also never had so much of a whiff of a scandal? There’s really only one.
That’s what this decade’s best list is all about. Dememtrious Johnson got my vote for No. 1 and landed No. 2 overall for MMA Junkie. Regardless of what particular spot you have him, that’s a hell of an impact.
[opinary poll=”what-do-you-think-of-demetrious-johnson-” customer=”mmajunkie”]
[lawrence-related id=474644,474172,472295,472293,472354,472105,471963,471823]