“That Would Be a Hard-A*s Fight” – Demetrious Johnson Opens Up on a Possible Fight With Newly Crowned Bantamweight King Sean O’Malley

Demetrious Johnson is a living legend in mixed martial arts, and he gives credit to other fighters where it is due.

The ONE Flyweight World Champion and former UFC flyweight king watched ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley take the bantamweight belt from Aljamain Sterling this past weekend with particular interest.

Demetrious Johnson Shares How He Would Approach A Meeting With Sean O’Malley

Before the fight, now-former titleholder Sterling made claims that Johnson is “too little” and that “father time may have caught up to him a bit” in an interview. “Mighty Mouse” responded by inviting his fellow American martial artist to spar with him to show how he would dominate in the clinch. Now that the UFC has a new bantamweight World Champion, Johnson’s focus has shifted to O’Malley.

While launching a new podcast this week, Johnson posted a clip on his Instagram page where he discussed a hypothetical matchup with “Suga.” While he recognizes the newly minted champ’s strengths, the MMA legend hinted that the UFC’s rule set could work to the 28-year-old’s favor in terms of not getting penalized for not pushing the action. “Dude, me versus O’Malley, that would be a hard-a*s fight. A very, very hard-a*s fight,” Johnson said in the clip.

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“It would be so hard just to get to him. There’s no yellow card in the UFC, so he can use his bike and lateral movement every single time. He has a great jab. He has a great right hand. I would have to chop his tree down and leg kick him. As I’m trying to leg kick him, I got to make sure he doesn’t get a good check off so I don’t hurt my leg.” Johnson added.

Demetrious Johnson is no stranger to fighting taller opponents

Taking down taller competition has rarely been an issue for Johnson in his career. He claimed the top spot in ONE’s flyweight division by taking out the much longer and taller Adriano Moraes with knee strikes in their second match before outclassing him over five rounds in their trilogy meeting. A match with O’Malley would certainly be an interesting bout to watch, and “Mighty Mouse” is aware that he’d have his work cut out for him.

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When comparing the new and old keepers of the UFC’s bantamweight strap, Johnson took the chance to take a final dig at ‘Funk Master’ “That would be a way tougher fight than fighting Aljamain Sterling,” he said.