Mikey Musumeci reveals he was advised by doctor to pull out of match: “I was supposed to take off two weeks”

Reigning and undisputed ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion ‘Darth Rigatoni’ Mikey Musumeci was victorious in his latest match in ONE Championship. But if it were up to his doctors, they would have preferred he rested instead of taking on a guy who was at least 30 pounds heavier than he was.

Musumeci battled former ONE lightweight MMA world champion ‘Tobikan Judan’ Shinya Aoki at ONE Fight Night 15: Le vs. Freymanov on Prime Video, which took place live at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on October 7.

Musumeci won via submission. More importantly of note, he was hammered by food poisoning just days before the bout. The Italian-American phenom revealed that he was advised by his doctor to not push through with the match.

Addressing the media at the ONE Fight Night 15 post-fight interviews, Musumeci talked about the ordeal.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ said:

“Again, I was supposed to take off two weeks. That's what the doctor told me. He told me, ‘Don't get your heart rate above 100 beats per minute.’ And then like a day or two after I was training and I still fought in this match. Definitely, it was hard and definitely a difficult task I had, but it made me so motivated and I wanted to show myself that even when I'm uncomfortable, I don't feel well, I can do this. And that lesson and this experience will transfer to the next fight.

“Like I said before, it doesn't matter what your body feels. If your body can perform under those circumstances, you will win. And that's what I did. I showed myself again so the next experience I'm ready for that again and again.”

See the full interview below:

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action of Musumeci vs. Aoki and the rest of the stacked ONE Fight Night 15 card via replay on Amazon Prime Video.