Demetrious Johnson is one of the most decorated and dominant champions the UFC ever had. “Mighty Mouse” held the undisputed 125-pound title for six straight years and defended it a total of 11 times, the most anyone’s ever had in the organization.
During his time, every UFC champion got a title belt after each defense. But according to Johnson, he only has three in his possession.
“I don’t know [where they all are]. I have my three,” he said in a recent appearance on the MMA Hour. “I have the one I got in 2012, I have the one I tied Anderson Silva’s record — Wilson Reis — then I have the one when I threw Ray Borg up in the air for the armbar.
“So I have those three and then I have my [ONE Championship] Grand Prix belt and I have the ONE Championship flyweight belt.”
According to the 36-year-old Johnson, the belts were supposedly returned back to the UFC warehouse in Las Vegas because they were too heavy to be flown out.
“The other ones, the story was, I got them all to New York,” he explained. I had all of them, and imagine, each belt is 12 pounds. We’re at ESPN, taking a picture, and I was like, alright, I can’t get this all on the flight.
“So [someone] was like, ‘I’ll take them back to Vegas and I’ll send them up to you.’ So they went back to Vegas in the UFC warehouse, and that’s the only thing I know. I don’t know where they’re at.”
Johnson now fights under Singapore’s ONE Championship where he is the 135-pound champion. And he says ONE’s title belts weigh doubly heavier.
“It’s heavy — it’s double the weight [of the UFC belt]. It’s heavy. I think it’s 25 pounds. The UFC is 12, 12.5, I think ONE Championship is 25 pounds.
“When they were like, ‘Hey can you bring the belt?’ I’m gonna tell them, ‘You guys need to make a fake one, just for press conferences because it’s so heavy.’”
Johnson says he isn’t bothered by his incomplete collection because already has the “special, meaningful ones” with him.
“I did [want them], but once again, it was so heavy I couldn’t get them on the plane!” Johnson said. “I had a solid plan. I had them sent back to Vegas and the warehouse and I figured they were going to send them back to me, and I dropped the ball. That’s OK. I got the special ones, I got the meaningful ones.
“If they come, they come. If they don’t, they don’t. If I got all 11 of my belts, I don’t know what I’d do with them.”
Johnson last saw action at ONE on Prime Video 11 late last month, where he evened the score with Adriano Moraes with a fourth-round flying knee KO win to become ONE’s current flyweight champion.
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