ONE Championship: Demetrious Johnson still supports grounded knees – ‘I would’ve blasted him too’
- ‘The rules are there to keep the fight progressing,’ Johnson says after Adriano Moraes delivers knee to his head while he was on the ground
- ‘I’m totally content with what happened, it’s not like that rule should be taken out for me,’ adds ‘Mighty Mouse’
As Demetrious Johnson fronted up to the first knockout loss of his career, it was pointed out by members of the media on ONE Championship’s post-event press conference that there was an element of irony in that his downfall came via a legal knee to the head while he was grounded.
Adriano Moraes shocked the world with a second-round TKO of consensus flyweight “GOAT” (greatest of all time) in Thursday morning’s ONE on TNT 1 main event to retain his title.
“Mighty Mouse” had, of course, criticised the different rule set used by his former employers the UFC last month when Petr Yan was punished with the loss of his bantamweight title for landing a similar strike on Aljamain Sterling.
“What if I didn’t say anything?” Johnson said. “I’m not worried about it, guys. I believe in these rules, they’re put in place for a reason and it’s just a different aspect of the game you have to evolve around.
“I know this is a street fight. If you knock them down, you can blast them in the face, that’s essentially what happened tonight. He [Moraes] delivered a phenomenal one and took me out. I’m totally supportive of these rules. I’m not saying that should never have happened.