In 2018, an unprecedented trade in MMA took place between the UFC and ONE Championship, but who won?
Former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson was traded for ex-ONE Championship title holder Ben Askren. Johnson went onto capture the ONE flyweight title, capping off his career by besting Adriano Moraes 2-1 in their rivalry.
Meanwhile, Askren came in with a bang by finishing Robbie Lawler in his octagon debut at UFC 235. Despite then being on the receiving end of the fastest knockout in UFC history courtesy of Jorge Masvidal, his ability to sell a fight made him a big star in such a short amount of time.
Judging by the way things panned out, Johnson thinks both organizations benefitted from the trade.
“My standpoint, I said everybody won,” Johnson told Askren on his “MightyCast” podcast. “I got to go to ONE Championship, make good money. You got to come to the UFC, get the opportunity to fight, see what you could do there. The UFC got you, which you were very good about creating buzz. Your sh*t-talking was actually intelligent sh*t-talking. You would be very good snippets.
“So if it wasn’t for you, they might not have the rise of Jorge Masvidal without that flying knee. …Without that flying knee you would never have Jorge Masvidal, ‘Street Jesus’ baptizing people coming up, then you wouldn’t have Kamaru Usman, you wouldn’t have Leon Edwards. Then you look at ONE Championship, they got me, I was able to fight, I get knocked out over there to show that their competition is actually legit. I come back and I beat Adriano. So I think, all in all, everybody won. What say you?”
After losing to Masvidal, Askren was submitted by Demian Maia in October 2019, before opting to hang up his gloves. He agrees with Johnson on both parties benefitting, where his move to the UFC re-ignited a final run.
“ONE Championship, the thing that was golden for them is I wasn’t going to fight,” Askren said. “I was done. If you stay in the UFC, I’m assuming you’re going to continue to fight, at least for a while. And in ONE Championship, I was legit done. I wasn’t fighting anymore.
“So, they essentially sold an asset that was kind of off market for – and you had a five-year run where I think you’ve done some grappling matches, you did a mixed-rules match, you did MMA, you’ve done a lot of things over there, which is obviously very cool. I think the most correct answer is everybody won. I got what I wanted, you got what you wanted.”