Israel Adesanya names the “ultimate GOAT” of MMA: “Did everyone just forget about Demetrious Johnson?”

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya has shared his picked for the greatest fighter in mixed martial arts history.

Adesanya was asked to chime in on the GOAT debate during a recent appearance on Submission Radio. The champ quickly pointed to former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who now competes under the ONE Championship banner.

“If we want to talk about Ultimate GOAT, did everyone just forget about Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson?” Adesanya said (via MMA Mania). “Just the perfect fighter… or near perfect.”

Johnson ruled over the UFC flyweight from 2012 to 2018, defending the belt 11 times in that stretch, with wins over the likes of Joseph Benavidez (twice), Kyoji Horiguchi, and Henry Cejudo. After surrendering the title to Cejudo via spit decision, he moved to ONE Championship. He’s now 3-0 under the ONE banner, having won the promotion’s flyweight Grand Prix with defeats of Yuya Wakamatsu, Tatsumitsu Wada and Danny Kingad. He’s now a fantastic 30-3-1 overall.

Israel Adesanya, on the other hand, is now 20-0 overall, and is widely considered one of the pound-for-pound best fighters on the planet. He last fought in the main event of UFC 254 in September, when he knocked out Paulo Costa to defend his middleweight bout. In his next fight, he’ll move up to the light heavyweight division to challenge Jan Blachowicz for his belt.

On the same episode of Submission Radio, Adesanya shared his initial thoughts on that matchup with Blachowicz.

“With Jan, he’s a good fighter, he’s solid on the ground, he’s awkward on the feet, very dangerous, and he poses a lot of problems,” Adesanya said. “The Whittaker fight wouldn’t get me hard. This gets me hard. Like, this is like, alright, let’s go.”

“He’s dangerous on the ground, he’s awkward on the feet, got that Legendary Polish Power,” Adesanya added. “But yeah, everyone’s got power, right? I mean, it’s something I proved in my last fight. I told y’all. You have to delivery that power somehow, you have to get it to the target. I’m not the easiest target to hit”

What do you think of these comments from Israel Adesanya? Is Demetrious Johnson the true GOAT of MMA?