The mixed martial arts (MMA) legend will face Rodtang in one of the top features at ONE X on March 26. The fight will alternate from all-striking to mixed martial arts across four three-minute rounds at Singapore Indoor Stadium.

“Rodtang is with a great camp. I know he’s really strong. I know he’s going to have a great takedown defense. I know he’s going to hit like a horse. He’s the best Muay Thai fighter in the world, now [training] in mixed martial arts, so nothing will surprise me. We’re going to go out there, fight, test his stand up, test his grappling, test everything, and just compete,” said Johnson.

“If I make it out of the first then I make it out of the first. If he makes it out of the second then he makes it out on the second. We’ll keep on fighting until they say we can’t fight anymore, and we’ll go from there.”

Rodtang is known as “The Iron Man” for his granite chin, which allows him to keep standing despite receiving multiple strikes from his opponents, and Johnson understands it might not be a good idea to trade brawls with the Thai.

“No, [I don’t see a way to KO him early]. Rodtang has been hit with everything. ‘Mini T’ [Danial Williams] has clipped him. Jonathan Haggerty has clipped him. Everybody he fights, he has been clipped. I’ve never been the athlete to go into a fight banking on myself to knock somebody out or submit somebody. I will go in there and I think to myself, ‘This is going to be a long 12-minute fight,’” said Johnson, who has been widely considered as the GOAT — greatest of all time ­— in MMA.

“It’s like if Bruce Lee was fighting Rodtang, do you think he’d stay right in front of him the whole time and let him take all the shots? Absolutely not. So do I plan on standing toe-to-toe with Rodtang? Absolutely not. I’m going to look to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”

Read also: Asha Roka determined to show better ground game at ONE X

Instead, with his legendary MMA career, Johnson plans to utilize his all-rounded skill against one of the most dangerous fighters in the world. However, he takes nothing for granted and believes that Rodtang can still possess some dangers even when the fight is switched to MMA. That is partly because of the regular five-minute rounds in MMA.

“Three minutes is nothing. I was sparring the other day and three minutes went by and I was like, ‘That was three minutes?’ And the other guy goes, ‘Yeah, it’s too quick.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I couldn’t get anything done!’

“[The MMA rounds] allow me to start doing more things, but only for three minutes, and within those, the fight still starts on the feet. So, let’s say I get the fight down with two minutes left. I have to start going over submissions, beat him up, try to ground and pound him. Then we go back to Muay Thai. It’s an extremely hard fight when I sit down and break it down technically.”

Still, Johnson is not just an ordinary fighter. His adaptability, versatility and fighting IQ, can help him find the path to victory.

“When I sit down and think about this fight, for the first and third round it’s basically like Batman fighting Superman, and he knows he has a kryptonite ring. In the second and fourth round, he gets to use it, but he’s only got three minutes!

“I’ve got three minutes to put this guy away. So, do I think he can take a flush knee to the face? Absolutely. Do I think he can hold his breath underwater if I cut off his blood supply to his brain? Probably not. But like I said, I plan on mixing it up and just going out there and fighting.”

Watch ONE X on March 26 at watch.onefc.com and subscribe to ONE Championship on YouTube!

This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship

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