Khamzat Chimaev needed 47 seconds to submit Demetrious Johnson during a grappling session, locking up a D’arce choke after a short exchange on the mat.
The video starts with Johnson asking if Arman Tsarukyan had told Chimaev he was good and strong. Chimaev answered with a quick smile, then got to the front headlock and finished the choke not long after the round started.
This clip gets attention because Johnson is not just a retired name doing light training. He is the former UFC flyweight champion who defended that belt 11 straight times, later won a title in ONE Championship, and stayed active in grappling after leaving MMA competition. That is real technique across a long career, but the size difference here was obvious from the start.
Watch the clip below.
Johnson’s résumé is elite, but Chimaev’s size changed the round fast
Johnson spent years beating top flyweights with speed, timing, and clean decisions. He retired from MMA in 2024, and he is set to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2026. None of that changed what Chimaev brought into this round. He was the bigger man, the stronger man, and once he got to the neck, Johnson had to deal with a squeeze most flyweights never feel in training.
After the tap, Johnson joked about people questioning why he pulled guard and made it clear he was not about to shoot a takedown on Chimaev. That part mattered because it showed he knew exactly what he was up against.
For Chimaev, the timing is simple. His last fight was the title win over Dricus Du Plessis, and his next one is a first middleweight title defense against Sean Strickland at UFC 328 on May 9 in Newark. That matchup already has noise around it after Joe Pyfer picked Strickland to pull the upset. A clip like this only adds to the talk around Chimaev’s pressure and finishing game going into that defense.
It was a gym round, nothing more than that. Still, when a former UFC champion gets caught in under a minute by the current middleweight champion, people are going to watch it, and the reason is obvious.
