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The submission victory of reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci against former ONE lightweight MMA world champion Shinya Aoki at ONE Fight Night 15 on October 6, 2023, in their openweight submission grappling match was already an impressive feat.
But that victory was even more spectacular because of what Musumeci had gone through before the fight. Days before his match with the Japanese legend, the 27-year-old American suffered severe food poisoning after eating a watermelon that he bought from the streets of Thailand.
The incident caused him to get admitted to the hospital because he had a fever as high as 106 degrees Fahrenheit and a lot of pain. However, he was able to recover in time to compete, fight on the card, and eventually get the submission victory.
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‘Darth Rigatoni’ opened up about this experience to Sports Illustrated in a recent interview and how his body was messed up leading to the fight, which prompted him to fail the hydration test multiple times.
Musumeci said:
“That showed how sick I was. I drank almost two gallons of water, my urine was clear, but I still failed the hydration test. So I drank another 1.5 liters of water, took the test again–and failed the test again. I was freaked out. Obviously, I was ill. I didn’t know if I would pass. The fact I was failing with failed urine showed my body was pretty messed up.”
Fortunately, he was able to pass the necessary tests and was given a go signal to push through with his dream matchup with his idol. He only needed three minutes and five seconds to get the victory by locking in a modified Aoki lock to force the tap from Aoki himself.
It was his sixth victory under the world’s largest martial arts organization and fourth submission finish that granted him another $50,000 bonus, courtesy of ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
You can watch the ONE Fight Night 15 replay on demand via Amazon Prime Video in North America.
