I KEPT MESSING UP my footwork, but the GOAT was there to make sure I kept my stances straight. ONE Championship Flyweight king Demetrious Johnson, a.k.a. “Mighty Mouse,” has a keen eye for fighting form—probably an understatement when you’re talking about one of the best MMA athletes of all time—so I was moving better with just a few tweaks. I followed the steps he laid out for me: Kick, punch, switch feet, then explode up into the air, driving my knee to the sky.
I was working to learn Johnson’s most recent fight-finishing knockout move: the flying knee. He ended his last matchup, a title bout with Adriano Moraes, with the devastating martial arts skill. It allows fighters to launch themselves directly at their opponent, focusing an entire body’s worth of force on one point. In that case, that point was Moraes’ face. The win gave Johnson the championship title and revenge for their previous fight, which Moraes had won with a knee of his own.
Johnson will face Moraes for a third time to close out their ONE Championship title trilogy. This time, however, the fight will be a homecoming. ONE Championship is a major promotion in Asia and elsewhere around the world, holding fights in disciplines like MMA, Muay Thai, and other combat sports, but Johnson’s title defense (which will take place in Denver tonight) is the first time a ONE Championship event will be held in the United States. Johnson holds the record for the most title defenses in UFC history with 11, establishing his GOAT bonafides—but he hasn’t fought on U.S. soil since he left the promotion for ONE Championship in 2018.
Before that, however, Johnson joined me at Hit House in New York City to guide me through the flying knee. I was ready to learn on my feet, but I wasn’t quite prepared to go head-to-head with the MMA GOAT in a high-stakes conditioning drill showdown. I left with a new skill—a an L against one of the best to ever step into the cage.
Demetrious Johnson’s Knockout Flying Knee
The Skill – Shadow Boxing
Before I could even think about taking a knee-first flight, Johnson needed to teach me how to get into the right position to throw the brutal finisher. I honed my maneuvers using shadowboxing (which is where my struggles with footwork were most glaringly obvious).
Johnson demonstrated how to best set up my opponent, and then how to throw the powerful flying knee. We went over a combination of punches and kicks to gain the proper positioning to put my opponent on their heels ahead of the final maneuver.
The Drill – Heavy Bag Work
Next, I need to apply the sequence on the heavy bag (in this case, Hit House’s specialized Bishop design). This allows me to feel what it’s like to make contact with the series before introducing an opponent, whose counters would make it much more difficult to pull off properly.
I struggled a bit with the stance switching again, but in the end nailed the final sequence after some focused coaching from Johnson.
The Challenge
Some contests in life are fair. Others will force you, a novice fighter, to compete head-to-head against one of the greatest competitors in the history of the sport. Johnson challenged me to a speed series on the heavy bag, racing through a series of kicks and knees to see who could finish with the fastest time. The loser was stuck with a 20 burpee penalty.
The Mighty Challenge:
- 10 right kicks
- 10 left kicks
- 20 alternating knees
Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t fast enough to beat Johnson. He edged me by a second.
That’s just fine with me; that means that the GOAT didn’t take it easy on me. I’ll come back stronger next time. When I do, I’ll have the flying knee in my back pocket to shock the world with a highlight knockout strike.
You can watch ONE Championship Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III on May 5 at 8 p.m. Eastern on Prime Video.
Brett Williams, a fitness editor at Men’s Health, is a NASM-CPT certified trainer and former pro football player and tech reporter who splits his workout time between strength and conditioning training, martial arts, and running. You can find his work elsewhere at Mashable, Thrillist, and other outlets.
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