ONE X: Demetrious Johnson and Rodtang live up to bizarre billing as special rules bout sends fans crazy in Singapore
- Co-main event of ONE Championship’s 10th anniversary spectacular at the Singapore Indoor Stadium produces memorable spectacle
- ‘Mighty Mouse’ avoids Shinya Aoki’s famous mistake and stays patient in MMA round after weathering ‘hardest hitter’ he’s ever faced
Demetrious Johnson will never be one to admit to enjoying the spotlight.
But after years of being underappreciated in the UFC, the legendary “Mighty Mouse” will surely revel in the buzz generated by Saturday night’s triumph over ONE flyweight Muay Thai champ Rodtang in their special rules fight at ONE X.
The bout lived up to its bizarre billing as the co-main event of ONE Championship’s 10th anniversary showcase at Singapore Indoor Stadium, as a mass live audience returned for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
And they were treated to a memorable spectacle, with a half-capacity crowd putting two years of pandemic restrictions in the city state behind them and going crazy in the stands, while two legends of their own sports mixed them up in a deliberately-designed circus atmosphere.
“Yeah, it was fun to experience that. It’s the first time I’ve had an opponent just cross the distance like that, and that’s what we trained for,” Johnson said of a frantic first round which played out under Muay Thai rules.
“We did a bit of both, because usually Muay Thai athletes start slower and have that rhythm and then they slowly build up. You look at Nong-O [Gaiyanghadao] when he fought today. He built up, then finally got that knockout [over Felipe Lobo].