One of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world is now officially part of the world’s biggest martial arts promotion.
On Sunday morning, the first-ever trade between two promotions, ONE Championship and UFC, was finalized as ONE sent its reigning Welterweight World Champion Ben Askren (18-0-1) to the UFC in exchange for former UFC World Flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson (27-3-1).
“Please join me in welcoming the number one pound-for-pound king, Demetrious Johnson, to ONE Championship,” ONE Chairman Chatri Sityodtong announced on his Instagram account.
“He is the most dominant mixed martial arts world champion in history, and holds the record for the most number of world title defenses in UFC,” he added, as Johnson holds the record for most number of successful title defenses at 11.
Johnson, 32, was the first-ever champion in the Flyweight division. He lost the belt by way of a split decision to Henry Cejudo last August.
For his part, Askren has been part of ONE since 2014. He was able to make six title defenses of the Welterweight Championship, last defeating Shinya Aoki back in November of 2017. He has been inactive since.
In ONE, Johnson will be taking on a stacked division that is headed by Team Lakay’s Geje Eustaquio. Adriano Moraes, Kairat Akhmetov, Reece McLaren, Danny Kingad, and Gianni Subba are other contenders that are raring to get a shot at Mighty Mouse.
