All-time pound-for-pound great Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson will be keeping a close eye on Baguio-native Danny “The King” Kingad and Fil-Aussie Reece “Lightning” McLaren when they share the ring in the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix.
The pair of fiery flyweights are set to collide on the undercard of ONE: Dawn of Heroes on Friday, August 2, which takes place at the 20,000-seater Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines.
Johnson is on the other side of the bracket. He will take on former Deep Flyweight World Champion Tatsumitsu “The Sweeper” Wada the same night.
Not one to look past an upcoming foe, he is nevertheless excited to see who goes through on the other bracket.
“It’s going to be a tough fight for both of those guys,” Johnson said.
“Obviously Danny Kingad is more of a stand-up athlete, while Reece McLaren is well-rounded but he likes the ground a little better. I think that’s going to be a great fight for both of those guys, and I’ll be watching closely.”
The 32-year-old Madisonville, Kentucky native sees an even match-up between Kingad and McLaren. In fact, Johnson feels that the bout is so evenly matched that he cannot pick between the two.
“Any of those guys can win it,” Johnson opined.
“I think McLaren has all the tools to get the fight to the ground and submit him. And I think Kingad has all the athleticism in the world to keep the fight where he wants it.”
Johnson made his debut at The Home of Martial Arts when he defeated Yuya “Little Piranha” Wakamatsu by way of second-round submission at ONE: A New Era this past March.
Now that he has arrived at the Asian landscape of mixed martial arts, Johnson reiterated that he is coming to sweep the division en route to one day becoming the ONE Flyweight World Champion.
“I’m in Asia and had one fight against Yuya Wakamatsu. It was a tough fight,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I’m looking to go out there and finish people.”
