“I’m so ready” - Mikey Musumeci says he hasn’t taken a single day off in three months

Mikey Musumeci [Photo Credits: ONE Championship]
Mikey Musumeci [Photo Credits: ONE Championship]

Mikey Musumeci is in Singapore and ready to accomplish a very important task this weekend: eat some pizza. But before he does that, the man called ‘Darth Rigatoni’ has another very important task ahead of him.

At ONE on Prime Video 2, Musumeci will enter the circle for the second time in what will be the biggest match of his career thus far.

Mikey Musumeci will face Brazilian grappler Cleber Sousa in U.S. primetime to crown the very first ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion. Ready to seize the moment, Mikey Musumeci revealed at the ONE on Prime Video 2 press conference that he has not taken a single day off in the last three months.

“I’m here in Singapore to do two things - do jiu-jitsu and eat pizza. And pizza places don’t open till after the match. So I’m here to do jiu-jitsu with Cleber, he’s amazing. I worked so hard in preparation for this match and I’m so ready. I haven’t taken one day off in like three months, so I’m so ready for this match.”

In his first ONE Championship appearance, the New Jersey native earned an impressive submission of grappling icon Masakazu Imanari, scoring a submission in just over four minutes.

The five-time IBJJF world champion has 58 career victories in the world of submission grappling. He’ll look for win number 59 on September 30.


Mikey Musumeci believes ONE Championship submission grappling rules bring out the best in competitors

Always innovating, ONE Championship reintroduced the world to submission grappling inside the circle at the promotion’s 10th-anniversary event ONE X. Since then, the promotion has signed a slew of incredible submission grappling superstars and has developed a rule set that encourages submissions over survival.

Sharing his thoughts on the ONE Championship rule set, Mikey Musumeci said:

“It's just a pure battle of two guys trying to kill each other with submissions. I feel like this format will bring out the best version of Cleber. And it should bring out the best version of me because it's just pure attacking.”

The biggest difference between ONE Championship’s submission grappling versus what you would see in a typical BJJ competition is the emphasis on submissions and submission attempts.

Inside the Circle, submission grappling matches will have a single 12-minute round with the only way to win being by way of tap or nap. However, if no submission occurs by the end of the time limit, the competitor with the most submission attempts will be awarded the victory.

No points. No decisions. The man who puts his opponent in the most danger walks out the winner.

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