Demetrious Johnson fight’s like he’s plugged into a video game, with all the right buttons pressed at all the right times. But that’s not just a matter of appearance. The UFC flyweight champion calls his ‘plugged in’ style of fighting “The Matrix” and it was on full display last weekend in Kansas City, Missouri. ‘Mighty Mouse’ deconstructed his opponent, Wilson Reis over the course of two rounds, before tapping the BJJ black belt with an armbar in the 3rd.
A couple days later, he was on Twitch, breaking the whole thing down for his fans.
“Okay, so this is what he means by The Matrix,” Johnson said, firing up a UFC highlight video of his 10th title defense. “Alright, here we go. So, you move in, get up, three, high kick move, move.”
“Right here, see right here,” he continued, “when you go back here, his hand is on the ground right now. He’s playing the hand game right there. He’s playing that fucking game, that Chris Weidman was playing, and I couldn’t knee him. Actually, in Kansas City, they don’t have this rule in effect, so he put one hand down, a finger or something like that, and I cannot knee him. So, there’s a finger. Can’t knee him because he has a hand on the ground. I was ready to knee him too. But, strategically, I’m in the Matrix. I am better than Morpheus and Neo themselves. I am my black ass. Here, here, there goes a knee. It goes left hook, I think. Left hook, and then here comes a knee to the body again. Boom, right there, get him off.
“Alright, and here’s a little bit more of the Matrix right here,” Johnson said as highlights of the second round started playing. “Here it is right here. Right here, I’m throwing the jab, I’m throwing the jab, I’m throwing the jab. Matt’s sitting here, he’s like, he’s in the Matrix, there the other two coaches looking damn good. Throw the jab, he ducks, I’m moving away. Now, there it is, I’m at the angle right now, there’s the right hand. It’s coming. There it is, that’s the Matrix, that’s what Matt’s talking about with putting me in the Matrix. Now moving, here we go, here, moving, throwing a jab. And then, there’s that left hook right there. That’s the Matrix right there, when you’re moving and you’re just flowing.”
“Back into explaining the Matrix, hit him with that, and now I’m standing there. Boom, there’s that body, that was the liver shot. Liver shot, right here. That’s where your liver is, it’s on the… I think it’s the right side of your body. I’m not sure, I have to look how to do it. Hit him with the liver shot, drops him, defends the takedown, goes past guard, do some ground and pound. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.”
And while the video didn’t show the finish of the fight, highlights from the third round showed much of the action leading right up to it, which DJ talked fans through.
“Here we go to the third round… It’s on the left side? Fuck, see. I don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t ask me. Body kick, took him down. Boom, takedown, there we go.”
Currently, Johnson is awaiting his other eight UFC title belts (one for each title defense) so he can get in on a little of the Floyd Mayweather action that’s going around and recreate this classic photo:
Dana White has said he’ll make it happen. In the meantime, Johnson will have to wait for his next title challenger to emerge from the UFC’s flyweight division and keep taking out opponents online.
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