Mikey Musumeci recalls ‘horrifying’ experience grappling with Anatoly Malykhin

A three-minute grappling session with Anatoly Malykhin was enough for Mikey Musumeci to suggest that the two-division ONE world champion is an out-and-out menace on the canvas.

The two superstars enjoyed a breakout year in 2022, passing their respective tests with flying colors regardless of the status of their opponents.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ became the promotion’s inaugural submission grappling world champion with a dominant unanimous decision win over Brazilian wizard Cleber Sousa at ONE on Prime Video 2 in October last year.

On the flip side, Malykhin grabbed the interim heavyweight gold with typical destruction, blasting past Kirill Grishenko via his heavy-striking artillery. In December, he sealed two-division world championship status with another crushing knockout versus Reinier de Ridder.

At ONE Fight Night 6 earlier this year, before Mikey Musumeci defended his flyweight submission grappling world title again, the pair briefly shared a short exchange on the mats.

The Russian, now a two-division ONE world champion, certainly had a field day, grappling against the New Jersey native who is six divisions lighter. ‘Darth Rigatoni’ couldn’t relate to that, though.

Recalling the incident during The Fighter and The Kid podcast, the 27-year-old said:

“Anatoly and me rolled a little bit for like three minutes. He's so big, horrifying. We were just moving around [trying to attack each other].”

Testing himself against someone of Malykhin’s built before his world title defense was a bold move. But that fearlessness and eagerness to go up against various challenges have allowed him to become one of the best grapplers in the world today.

Relive Mikey Musumeci's most recent win at ONE Fight Night 10, available to North American fans via replay on Amazon Prime Video.