Demetrious Johnson not worried about chin after suffering first knockout loss: “I never doubt myself”

ONE Championship flyweight contender Demetrious Johnson is confident ahead of his return.

‘Mighty Mouse’ is set to face Adriano Moraes tonight at ONE on Amazon Prime 1. The bout will be a rematch of their prior encounter in April 2021. In that outing, Johnson was knocked out in the second round as he tried to become ONE flyweight champion.

Ahead of the rematch, a lot has been made about how the former UFC titleholder will respond to his defeat. The knockout loss to the Brazilian was the first time Johnson had been stopped in his career.

However, Demetrious Johnson isn’t worried about how his chin will hold up in the rematch. The 36-year-old discussed his return in an interview with MMAFighting. There, Johnson made it clear that he’s confident he will defeat the Brazilian in his second attempt.

Simply put, the former UFC champion believes he’s done everything he can to prepare himself for his rematch tonight. As far as his chin goes, Johnson feels confident. His taking some huge shots from Rodtang Jitmuangnon in their mixed-rules fight earlier this year likely helps his confidence.

“I’ve been hit hard before and I never doubt myself. At the end of the day, when it comes to the chin, it’s a chin — it’s just like your brain, it’s just like your knees, it’s just like your overall health. The body is a ticking time bomb for an athlete, right? It’s just a matter of time where an injury is going to happen and put me out of the sport.” (h/t MMAFighting)

“So, the best thing I can do to keep myself in this sport is go to the right training partners, train at the right gyms, hire the right nutritionist, get the right rest, and take the days off that you need to get your body back to 100 percent that you go out and compete. So, when it came to my chin and when I got blasted, I mean, I don’t know how many people can take a knee — when they’re trying to get up — straight to the f****** face and be able to get up like, ‘That was a good knee, dawg. Good knee. Good job.’ Yeah, it was a knee and there’s nothing you can do about that.”

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