ONE Fight Night 10 preview and predictions: Mikey Musumeci vs. Osamah Almarwai

Mikey Musumeci and Osamah Almarwai promise to showcase the beauty of submission grappling matches in front of a packed crowd at the 1stBank Center in Denver, Colorado.

In the first of three flyweight world title fights in the star-studded ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III card, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ will look to successfully defend his submission grappling throne for a second time against his most credentialed challenger yet.

‘Osa’ is the first-ever IBJJF black belt world champion from the Middle East, among other impressive accolades.

Like Musumeci, Almarwai is allergic to stalling and loves to push the pace by relentlessly hunting submissions. So much so that it was the champion who specifically requested a matchup with the Yemeni grappler.

‘Darth Rigatoni’, on the other hand, has exuded greatness in his first three circle appearances. The 26-year-old New Jersey native remains an unsolvable puzzle for anyone who dared to challenge his brilliance.

Much to the delight of the jiu-jitsu community around the world, these two ground savants will finally go head-to-head in ONE Championship’s monumental on-site debut on United States soil on May 5. The entire card will air live in US primetime and stream free of charge to Prime Video subscribers in North America.

Here’s Sportskeeda MMA’s ONE Championship team’s picks for the upcoming grappling war between Mikey Musumeci and Osamah Almarwai.

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Duane Lucas Pascua: Mikey Musumeci via submission (rear-naked choke)

This will be a close one as both have similar styles in the sense that they both like to butt-scoot and attack the legs. Musumeci went on record to say that he'll favor chokes more than joint locks from now on after the result of his last bout.

If this is true, we might see him attempt a repeat performance of his bout with Masakazu Imanari. He'll assume top position and try to pass Almarwai's guard, while the Yemeni grappler will hunt for leg locks off of his back. This will be a nail-biter as both grapplers are highly proficient at submissions.

It will boil down to who gets to the perfect positional dominance first. Almarwai has had problems finishing leg locks against leg-lockers in the past, while Musumeci has proven that he can attack effectively from almost all positions.

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Vince Richards: Mikey Musumeci via submission

Now this is a submission grappling fight that will surely have the fans up on their seats.

ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci has said himself that he’s on a mission to make his fight against Osamah Almarwai as entertaining as possible.

Musumeci hasn’t had the best grappling partners in his previous two matches in ONE Championship, but he now has Almarwai as an opponent in the promotion’s first on-site event in the United States.

Almarwai has a similar mindset to Musumeci’s and he’s eager to match ‘Darth Rigatoni’s’ energy on all fronts. He also trains at Atos, the home gym of the ultra-entertaining Ruotolo twins.

I’m sure that Almarwai will have the same high-flying style that Kade and Tye displayed in ONE Championship, and that will certainly make for an entertaining chess match against Musumeci.

That said, I see this bout ending with someone tapping out. Both fighters are excellent at hunting those submissions, but I’m giving the edge to Musumeci.

The American grappler is a wizard when it comes to isolating limbs and the neck, and I see Musumeci securing a tight choke hold that put force Almarwai to submit.

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Ted Razon: Mikey Musumeci via decision

As we’ve seen in past submission grappling matches in ONE, athletes coming from BJJ backgrounds tend to cancel each other out. However, I don’t think that will be the case at all, given both combatants’ equally aggressive yet fundamentally different styles.

Almarwai wreaked havoc in the BJJ scene last year, displaying a great ability to put his opponents on the defensive with his constant pressure. He also has a deadly anaconda choke in his repertoire and it will be interesting to see if he can threaten ‘Darth Rigatoni’ with it.

Musumeci, meanwhile, can generate a significant amount of offense while on his back with his ridiculous attacking guard.

I expect the slick American to repel the challenger’s attempts and beat him in his own game by forcing him to defend.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ also promised not to fixate on certain submission holds this time around, so I believe he’ll chain his submissions better and transition to more dominant positions if he can’t get the tap.

‘Osa’ has shown proficiency in defending leg locks in the past, which is Musumeci’s bread and butter at the moment. Still, I reckon the world champion will complete more submission attempts and therefore get the nod after 10 minutes of high-level grappling.