Mikey Musumeci says Shinya Aoki’s bigger frame won’t be a problem: “I find it easier with long-limbed opponents”

ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci understands that he’ll be giving up a significant amount of weight against his ONE Fight Night 15 opponent Shinya Aoki.

‘Tobikan Judan’, after all, is a natural lightweight and has been known to submit much bigger guys throughout his decorated BJJ and MMA career.

Musumeci plans to turn the tables around and beat the bigger Japanese superstar when they figure in a grappling-exclusive open-weight showdown this coming Friday.

The essence of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, of course, is allowing the smaller guy to subdue a bigger and stronger opponent using leverage and technique.

Considered an astute student of “The Gentle Art”, Mikey Musumeci plans to showcase just how effective BJJ can be against another fellow black belt.

Instead of worrying about Aoki’s physical advantages, Musumeci said he’ll even use it against him.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ shared in a ONE Championship interview:

“One thing I actually love about this match is that his arms and legs have more volume in them. My kryptonite. The harder matches for me in no-gi are guys with [short] limbs and tiny guys with [small] arms or legs. It's so weird that in no-gi it gives them an automatic advantage, right? Because you have nothing to hang on to."

Shinya Aoki does have lanky arms and legs, which he used masterfully in MMA where he racked up 30 submission victories.

Mikey Musumeci, though, believes it will be much easier for him to grab a hold of Aoki, given his lengthy limbs. He added:

“So when somebody has [short] limbs, it's very hard because you have the collar and sleeve and they have big shoulders. So you can like attack and stuff like that. So it's really easy to control guys with [short] limbs in the gi. But in no-gi it's very hard to control them. So I find it way easier with long-limbed opponents in no-gi.”

ONE Fight Night 15 will emanate from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok on October 6, live on US Primetime. The entire event is free for those with a Prime Video subscription in North America.