Demetrious Johnson's ONE X Fate: Beat Rodtang Or Suffer Shinya Aoki's 2010 Blunder?

One of the highly-anticipated matches slated on ONE Championship’s 10th-anniversary show this Saturday, March 26 is the one-of-a-kind cage encounter, pitting former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson against Muay Thai sensation Rodtang Jitmuangnon.

Both men will square off in a three-round hybrid flyweight bout with each round having three minutes. The first and third stanzas will be fought under Muay Thai rules, while the second and fourth periods will take place under the promotion’s “global ruleset” for mixed martial arts (MMA).

Four-ounce MMA-style gloves will be worn in both regulations.

Under Muay Thai rules, a competitor can win by knockout or via stoppage if they score three knockdowns in a single round. On the other hand, an athlete can win by knockout or submission during rounds where MMA rules are observed.

If the fight goes the distance, the result will automatically be declared a draw.

The unique concept of the aforementioned super-fight has piqued the interest of fans and pundits alike as this type of matchup is extremely rare and has only happened a number of times in history.

A somewhat similar exhibition gained public interest in December 2010 when Japanese mixed martial artist Shinya Aoki agreed to duke it out with compatriot and kickboxing royalty Yuichiro Nagashima at the annual New Year's Eve event promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group dubbed “Dynamite!! 2010.”

The clash featured one three-minute kickboxing round, followed by a standard five-minute MMA round. Aoki and Nagashima used open-fingered gloves throughout the match.

In the first three minutes under kickboxing rules, Aoki evaded Nagashima's offense by breaking the rules with excessive clinching and shooting for takedowns in order to run out the clock and move onto the five-minute MMA frame.

Under Aoki's preferred ruleset in the second canto, “Tobikan Judan” wasted no time in telegraphing a quick double-leg takedown which was met with a flying knee from Nagashima.

Upon impact of the knee strike, it sent Aoki crashing to the canvas. Nagashima then pummeled with a couple of hammerfists on his supine opponent before being pulled away by the referee.

Could this be a foreshadowing of the unfortunate fate that awaits “Mighty Mouse” against Rodtang at ONE X?

Though the dynamics will be much different in the hybrid Muay Thai-MMA tiff, Johnson already anticipates that he will need to work under pressure from start to finish.

“Rodtang is with a great camp. I know he’s really strong. I know he’s going to have a great takedown defense. I know he’s going to hit like a horse. He’s the best Muay Thai fighter in the world, now [training] in mixed martial arts, so nothing will surprise me,” he said.

“We’re going to go out there, fight, test his stand up, test his grappling, test everything, and just compete,” the 35-year-old native of Madisonville, Kentucky added.

“If I make it out of the first, then I make it out of the first. If he makes it out of the second, then he makes it out on the second. We’ll keep on fighting until they say we can’t fight anymore, and we’ll go from there.”

Johnson also believes that Rodtang can still pose a threat during the even-numbered MMA frames given that each round will last for three minutes instead of five

“Three minutes is nothing. I was sparring the other day and three minutes went by and I was like, ‘That was three minutes?’ And the other guy goes, ‘Yeah, it’s too quick.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I couldn’t get anything done,” he shared.

“[The MMA rounds] allow me to start doing more things, but only for three minutes, and within those, the fight still starts on the feet,” Johnson continued. “So let’s say I get the fight down with two minutes left. I have to start going over submissions, beat him up, try to ground and pound him. Then we go back to Muay Thai. It’s an extremely hard fight when I sit down and break it down technically.”

Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, the ONE Flyweight World Grand Prix winner fully understands the challenge in front of him.

“That’s the biggest thing when you fight somebody who’s going to take a shot for another shot, you just gotta use footwork. It’s like a matador and the bull. You’ve never seen a matador fight a bull head-on, right, because they usually lose. They’ll get killed,” Johnson shared.

“Rodtang is the bull, and I gotta make sure I use footwork and good feints and good speed to not get in that chaos he brings to the fight.”