Demetrious Johnson aspires to 'box a legend of the sport,' not a fellow MMA fighter

Demetrious Johnson has excelled in multiple forms of combat sports, and now he wants to try his hand at boxing.

The former longtime UFC flyweight champion and current ONE flyweight champ recently made headlines for submitting 6-foot-3, 248-pound BJJ heavyweight champion Michael Sante Medina at an open-weight tournament at the 2024 Pan IBJJF Championships.

Now “Mighty Mouse” wants to lace up the gloves in seek of another big challenge.

“I’m going to break some news right now,” Johnson said on his MIGHTYcast podcast. “I literally came home last night, I broke down some content, and I was watching Canelo Alvarez. I was watching him box, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that looks so damn dope.’ I went to the gym, I did jiu-jitsu, then I came home that night and I was in the kitchen, I was like, ‘Babe, I think I want to box.’ …

“I’m 37, going to be 38 this year. There has to come a point in time when an athlete is like, ‘Hey, you need to stop, chill, you’re doing good things.’ I’m getting ready for my next jiu-jitsu competition. So that’s probably why my body is ready to hit a hard training camp. I’d love to box, and it has to be the right opponent. If it was like Manny Pacquiao, f*ck it, I’m doing it. It has to be the right opponent. I don’t want to box another MMA guy. I wouldn’t mind, but I want to box a legend of the sport.”

While Johnson (25-4-1) dabbles in other forms of combat sports, he is unsure of his MMA future. He hasn’t competed since retaining his flyweight title in a trilogy bout against Adriano Moraes at ONE Fight Night 10 in May 2023.