Demetrious Johnson

Demetrious Khrisna Johnson is a retired American professional mixed martial artist, born in Madisonville, Kentucky, on 13 August 1986.¹² Inaugural UFC flyweight champion, he made a UFC-record eleven consecutive title defences before moving to ONE Championship, where he won the flyweight championship in 2022 and retired in 2024 as its first hall-of-fame inductee.¹ He is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time.¹

Johnson was born in Madisonville and grew up in Parkland, Washington, where he wrestled at Washington High School; he attended Pierce College and trained under Matt Hume at AMC Pankration in catch wrestling.¹ On 22 September 2012, at UFC 152, he beat Joseph Benavidez by split decision to become the inaugural UFC flyweight champion.¹ He defended the title eleven consecutive times, a UFC record, including a last-second suplex-to-armbar submission of Ray Borg at UFC 216 in October 2017 that is widely called one of the greatest submissions in MMA history.¹ In August 2018 he lost a split decision, and the title, to Henry Cejudo at UFC 227, and later that year he moved to ONE Championship in the sport's first major trade.¹

Johnson won the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix in 2019, lost his first ONE title bout to Adriano Moraes by knockout in April 2021, then won the rematch on 26 August 2022 with a flying-knee knockout to take the ONE flyweight championship, and won the trilogy bout by unanimous decision in May 2023.¹ He announced his retirement on 6 September 2024 at ONE 168 and was inducted as the first member of the ONE Hall of Fame; the English article records that on 28 March 2026 he was announced for the Modern Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.¹ Commentators including Joe Rogan and outlets such as ESPN have called him one of the greatest fighters in the sport's history, and the greatest flyweight of all time.¹

This section sets out different positions as reported in the sources. It is not a verdict by the museum. Neither Wikipedia article nor Wikidata makes any statement of Johnson's religion.¹³² Celebrity-profile pages on the open web list "Religion: Christian" for him without citing any source, and his interviews speak of God without naming a Christian affiliation — for example, telling theScore that "God has given me this body and this athletic ability".¹ Because two independent attestations of a Christian affiliation for him personally are lacking, his faith is recorded in the museum's data as unknown, with the wording above preserved.¹²

• Demetrious Johnson — English Wikipedia¹
• Demetrious Johnson — Arabic Wikipedia³
• Demetrious Johnson — Wikidata Q2698272²