“I want to test myself” – Mikey Musumeci says BJJ champs Gabriel Sousa and Diogo Reis remain atop his wish list

ONE Championship has assembled quite the roster of athletes across different combat sports like kickboxing, Muay Thai, and submission grappling alongside MMA because of its focus on living up to its moniker as the “home of martial arts”.

One athlete that has become a household name is that of the reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci.

Since joining the promotion in early 2022, Musumeci has defeated the likes of legendary Japanese grapplers Masakazu Imanari and Shinya Aoki, the latter being a two-time ONE lightweight MMA world champion with two successful title defenses to his name.

Musumeci admitted last month that he pushed himself a little too hard this year with four grappling bouts under ONE Championship’s banner, but that does not mean that he is not looking to face the best athletes in the world in the immediate future.

“Darth Rigatoni” recently put forward two names that he would want to share the mat with in an interview with ONE Championship:

“I want to test myself, you know, and those two guys, Gabriel Sousa and ‘Baby Shark,’ [Diogo Reis] those are the two guys I know are gonna make me push myself to train hard, and they make me excited.”

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Mikey Musumeci shares the spotlight with his older sister

Much like the vaunted and highly acclaimed Lee family within ONE Championship, Musumeci also has a sibling making waves in the sports in the form of Tammi Musumeci.

Tammi made her promotional debut in March of this year against Bianca Basilio and won via unanimous decision then repeated the feat against Amanda Alequin to put her record at 2-0.

She recently won gold at the World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu No-Gi Championship and while her brother sent his congratulations, he also lobbied for her to get into a marquee matchup with the current ONE women’s atomweight submission grappling world champion Danielle Kelly.