Mikey Musumeci seeks legendary status with win over ‘legend’ Shinya Aoki: “To become a legend, you have to beat legends”

Aside from winning a world title, defending it multiple times, and continuously championing the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, another goal of reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci is to beat as many legends as he can.

This plan was shared by ‘Darth Rigatoni’ in his latest ONE Championship interview ahead of the openweight submission grappling against former two-time ONE lightweight world champion Shinya Aoki. The pair will collide in the ring this Friday, October 6, inside the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Musumeci stated:

“Yeah, we're friends. He's a really cool guy. I think that he's a legend. He's been competing for so many years. He's an older competitor and he has nothing left to prove at this point in his career. So I have so much respect for Shinya and he's a legend.

“And to become a legend, you have to beat legends, right? So my goal is to face as many legends as I can. And to have the opportunity to roll with him. It's an honor.”

It will be a tough task for Musumeci, though, as Aoki is also a high-caliber submission specialist with Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Judo black belts on his resume. To top that, ‘Tobikan Judan’ also holds an equally impressive 10 submission victories in his 12 ONE Championship victories.

Meanwhile, Musumeci is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who’s still undefeated in all five ONE Championship bouts. Thus far, he's beated Masakazu Imanari (via submission), Cleber Sousa (via unanimous decision), Gantumur Bayanduuren (via unanimous decision), Osamah Almarwai (via submission), and Jared Brooks (via submission).

ONE Fight Night 15 will be available to fans with active Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America live and for free in U.S. primetime this Friday, October 6.