Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson has expressed interest in traveling to Dagestan, Russia, to train with the region’s well-known wrestlers and mixed martial artists.
“I want to go so bad,”
Johnson said in a recent interview. His only hesitation seems to be concerns about safety due to current global tensions.
Johnson explained that a friend with military experience gave him confidence about training in Dagestan’s mountainous areas.
“My buddy, he was ex-military. He was [saying], ‘you’re going to be in the mountains. Like if anything is going to happen, it’s going to be more in the city. But those guys are in the mountains. They’re isolated, where they’re away from all that stuff.'”
At this point in his career, Johnson is focused on learning from athletes with different backgrounds.
“That’s kind of what feeds my itch now is training with athletes because in my career, I never did any cross-training,”
he said.
He mentioned that his first experience training outside his regular camp came late in his career while working with Henry Cejudo. Now that he’s not actively competing against many of the athletes he trains with, he feels free to collaborate with top-level talent.
One major opportunity was training with UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
“When I got the opportunity to train with Islam, I was like, ‘yeah, I’ll train with Islam and Umar.’ And I was like, ‘you guys are big,'” Johnson recounted.
Johnson was particularly impressed with the Dagestani approach to training.
“That’s all they do. That’s all they do,”
he said, referring to their complete focus on combat sports.
Dagestan has produced many elite MMA stars, including former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. The region’s wrestling-first style has shaped a generation of dominant competitors.
Johnson, widely seen as one of MMA’s most technically gifted athletes, is looking to add new skills by training in Dagestan’s tough and isolated environment.
“Hopefully I make it to Dagestan, but we’ll see,”
Johnson said, leaving open the possibility of a future trip to train in the mountains that have shaped some of the sport’s most respected competitors.
etitors.
