Adriano Moraes:

The man who finally caught The Mouse

Note: ONE Championship continues the brilliant practice of uploading fights to Youtube immediately after they happen. You can view all of the fights discussed in this article on ONE’s Youtube channel.

Adriano Moraes is the man who beat the man. On Wednesday night, Moraes took on Demetrious Johnson—one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time—and stopped him in the second round. It was the first time Johnson had tasted defeat since a razor thin decision loss to the great Henry Cejudo at the height of his powers. In five rounds with Johnson, Cejudo never came close to doing what Moraes was able to. Now for MMA fans a door has opened: a brand new star who is clearly fighting at an elite level but who most had never even heard of until he was signed as fodder for Johnson.

The fight was fairly tame through the first round, the most notable thing being that Johnson was having a very hard time getting going. Moraes’ gameplan for the most part was to play on the outside and side step Johnson’s advances. Rapid advances and retreats have always been a mark of Johnson’s game—he will often enter and then step straight back away from his opponent rather than trying to get out the side door—and speed is a big part of that. Johnson has been slowing down in front of our eyes but this was the first time it seemed to really cost him: as Moraes was able to clap his lead leg with decent low kicks as Johnson tried to retreat out of range.

And when Johnson fought on the offensive, Moraes was keen not to meet him head to head. Instead Moraes took laps of the cage, circling off and allowing Johnson to fall short or give up on the chase. The stepping right hooks that Johnson had used to close the last bit of distance and engage men like John Dodson fell well short of the mark. Part of this was to do with Johnson seeming to lose a step from his lightning quickness through his prime, and part was Moraes staying very disciplined about his ring positioning and refusal to engage.

And of course it would be negligent to overlook the role of Moraes’ frame in all of this. Being a long, rangy fighter probably helped him keep Johnson on the outside, insofar as his stance and stride are longer, but he didn’t do much jabbing or framing or push kicking to make full use of his advantages. But that is not to condone the spate of nonsense over Moraes looking fifteen to thirty pounds heavier depending on who you ask.

It is true that ONE Championship’s weigh-ins and hydration testing are incredibly opaque, but the Senior Vice President in charge of those things is Matt Hume, Johnson’s coach. That is a horrendous conflict of interest but the only way it could work is in the opposite direction. Fixating on dreams of a weight class double cross also overlooks that Moraes has been competing at this weight for years in ONE—both before and after they introduced their hydration testing. Hell, Moraes was the defending champion in this bout! He didn’t just scrape into the weight class to “size bully” Demetrious Johnson in a one-off.

The knockout came off a counter uppercut as Johnson tried to rush to close and just couldn’t get it done in time. Lingering in the inbetween, Johnson was caught perfectly and stumbled. Seemingly still a little shaken, Johnson was hit with a knee to the head as he posted up on a hand and was knocked out.

It was a spectacular way for Adriano Moraes to alert the wider MMA world to his existence and the sterling work he has done in ONE Championship, but it was also a marked improvement from even his last fight where his striking was game but often ineffective. Yet Moraes’ grappling has always been his bread and butter and—against the best flyweight to ever do it—he looked completely in control on the mat.

In the first round, having haggled Johnson into a kicking match, Moraes caught a kick and moved in to complete a takedown. Johnson’s balance was as precise as it always has been, so Moraes baseball slid in underneath Johnson to attack his leg. In a bout where Moraes had been fighting cautiously it was a welcome moment of aggression, showing a willingness to engage Johnson in a grappling match even from his back.

As Moraes entangled Johnson’s leg, Johnson dropped to his rump to fight off Moraes’ control. In a rare miscalculation, Johnson attempted to stand up on the same side that Moraes had the leg controlled, rather than posting his hand and standing on the opposite side and then stacking back into Moraes. Johnson’s foot didn’t come free as he attempted the stand up and instead Moraes followed him up for a sweep.

While there is not much more to say about the Moraes – Johnson fight itself, the fact that Johnson was knocked out with a knee while in a grounded position has taken on significance because that is considered the main difference between Asian MMA and the unified rules that prevail in North America and Western Europe. While Moraes doesn’t make use of knees to the extent that a grappler of his ability could, he has still found some compelling ways of punishing grounded opponent in the ONE cage.

Moraes has consistently done great work off his opponent’s get-up. He often encourages his opponent to post a hand to the floor and turn away. In a number of his ONE matches, Moraes achieves a takedown along the cage, then drags the opponent away from the fence with his butt up in the air. Almost everyone turns to their hands and tries to jump up and run. In his second bout with ONE Championship, Moraes sprung to his man’s back and latched onto the choke before he even had the chance to put his hooks in.

The weakness that will always exist in the get up is the gap between the hand that posts on the floor and the position it needs to come up to to guard the head and jawline. Under the Unified Rules of MMA, a fighter has to try to time a high kick as his opponent’s hand leaves the floor but once he is clearly not “grounded.” A great example would be Gegard Mousasi catching Thiago Santos coming off the mat. But in ONE, Moraes can throw the kick or knee earlier without worrying about the legality. For instance, when Kosuke Suzuki was working up to a prop and beginning to stand up out in the open, Moraes stepped his right foot up and jumped up to soccer kick Suzuki instead of simply trying to hold him down.

But Moraes also uses his knees to set up walk around D’arces and north-south chokes. In an awkward fight with Tilek Batyrov, Moraes almost Von Flue choked the combat sambo champion a number of times before walking to north south. Striking Batyrov with a couple of knees encouraged Batryov to lock his hands around Moraes’ waist and to keep his head on top of Moraes’ thighs. While Moraes could no longer knee effectively, he was in perfect position to wrap Batyrov’s head and attack with the north south choke. The reason that Moraes is so keen to pull leg entanglements and attack north south chokes? Probably the influence of his long time training partner, Rani Yahya.

Like many of the other stand outs in ONE Championship, Adriano Moraes is a rough diamond. He just stopped the greatest flyweight to ever live, yet extremely limited fighters like Danny Kingad—who would not stop a takedown if you held a gun to his dog—are still in title contention. This has been a huge moment for Moraes, but it could be a flash in the pan and a return to grinding out wins over Team Lakay fighters, or it could be the start of something bigger. Unfortunately only time and the changing rosters of flyweight divisions across the world will determine that.