Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest MMA Grapplers

10. Demetrious Johnson

Sherdog's greatest flyweight and third-greatest fighter ever pound-for-pound snags yet another accolade on this list. Personally, I put him even higher, at seventh. At first, Johnson didn't appear to be a candidate for grappling greatness. He had wrestled in high school, finishing third and second in the state in his junior and senior years, but nothing beyond that. He wasn't a decorated BJJ ace, either. Initially, when Johnson turned pro and was fighting at bantamweight, he was outwrestled by Brad Pickett and Dominick Cruz en route to one-sided decision losses. Yet, when he dropped down to flyweight and fought men closer to his own size, Johnson kept getting better and better, until he was an absolute grappling virtuoso.

Johnson had one of the fastest entries of any wrestler I've seen, with perfect timing to boot, achieving takedown after takedown. Once on top, he had fantastic top control and was a huge submission threat at any point of the fight, with gorgeous technique. And thanks to arguably the greatest cardio in the sport's history, Johnson could do this for 25 straight minutes. That's no exaggeration either, as he submitted Ray Borg with less than two minutes remaining in Round 5 and then finished Kyoji Horiguchi with a second left in their bout, both via dazzling armbars. And he consistently did this against other excellent, even great grapplers. Borg and Horiguchi were both outstanding grapplers in their own right, and Johnson also tapped out John Moraga, Wilson Reis and Chris Cariaso, and dominated Ali Bagautinov, all highly skilled hands in that regard. Johnson's grappling was not limitless. Joseph Benavidez and Olympic gold medalist wrestler Henry Cejudo fought on at least even terms with Johnson, and perhaps Cejudo even had a slight edge. However, for such tremendous dominance over everyone else, including so many other good and great grapplers, Johnson is a very worthy inclusion here.

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