Bianca Basilio says she will transition to MMA, wants Xiong Jing Nan and Angela Lee

Bianca Basilio plans to make her professional MMA debut later this year.

At ONE Fight Night 8, Basilio lost for the first time in submission grappling under the ONE banner. The Brazilian had a close match against Tammi Musumeci, the sister of flyweight world champion Mikey Musumeci, but lost by unanimous decision.

During an interview with SCMP MMA, the 27-year-old had this to say about what’s next after losing to Musumeci:

“I want to maybe challenge an MMA fighter like Xiong [in submission grappling]. She has the belt in my division but in MMA, and she’s a brown belt too so she’s nice to [face]... MMA too, of course, one day. Yes, I will be prepared to fight with her and Angela Lee and other girls too… This year, I want to fight this year. I’ll start to fight and I’m preparing to fight in MMA and so I’m super excited.”

In March 2022, Basilio won her lone amateur MMA fight, securing a first-round submission in the MMA SupeCup. Since then, the Sao Paolo native has focused on submission grappling, competing at the ADCC World Championships before signing with ONE Championship. The former ADCC world champion won her promotional debut in November before losing against Musumeci.

Watch Bianca Basilio's interview with SCMP MMA below:

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Bianca Basilio thought she should have been awarded the win against Tammi Musumeci

Neither Bianca Basilio nor Tammi Musumeci secured a submission at ONE Fight Night 8. Due to the ONE Championship scoring criteria prioritizing submission attempts, Musumeci had her hand after going for several leg locks. In the aftermath of the event, Basilio reacted to the match with an Instagram post, which included this quote:

“I fought non-stop, all the time I walked forward, I felt strong and confident, I felt that I dominated the fight, I'm performing very well and as a rule I'm sure I won, because two everbal warnings would result in a yellow card that would leave my opponent behind in the score, she had four or five everbal warnings because I was calling guard without attack, and didn't take the yellow cards and with that the fight remained even the whole time and didn't give me the victory.”

Despite losing against Musumeci, Basilio has a bright future with hopes of competing in MMA and submission grappling. The 27-year-old could contribute significantly to the growing women’s grappling divisions, leading to many intriguing matchups.