“It was me overcompensating” - Mikey Musumeci reveals the unique reason why calf slicers are one of his favorite submissions

Mikey Musumeci is infamous for his devastating leg attacks, and one such submission hold he utilized in his latest match was the calf slicer.

The ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion scored a poetic win over Gabriel Sousa in his last outing when he submitted his old nemesis with a nasty calf slicer at ONE 167.

Musumeci said in a recent Instagram video that he decided to use the submission hold as a way to overcompensate for his rare condition of lacking refined muscles in his right calf.

He said:

"So today I'm going to talk about something I'm very insecure about and I've struggled with this my whole life honestly. And in my last match, it was basically me overcompensating for this. So as you guys can see, I'm calfless and I lived my whole life calfless, you know. So that's why I love calf slicers, you know because I don't have calves so I could overcompensate for not having calves by taking people's calves off."

Mikey Musumeci moved up to bantamweight when he fought Sousa this past June in a rematch that was three years in the making.

Sousa held a submission win over Musumeci when they squared off at Who's Number One in 2021, and that defeat festered within 'Darth Rigatoni' until they met again at ONE 167.

Musumeci wasted no time in the rematch and forced Sousa to submit to the calf slicer hold at the 3:07 mark into the 10-minute match.

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Mikey Musumeci talks about the dogged determination that pushed him to unprecedented heights

It's undeniable that Mikey Musumeci is one of this generation's best submission grapplers.

Musumeci was a five-time BJJ world champion before he became the inaugural ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion in 2022.

In a recent Q&A with his fans on Instagram Stories, Musumeci talked about the stubborn determination that fueled his desire to become the best submission grappler that he could be:

"I just had such passion and desire to keep improving and getting better and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. With that, the results kept coming as an indirect result."

Musumeci will have to bring that dogged determination when he heads to the biggest fight of his career in September.

'Darth Rigatoni' will challenge Kade Ruotolo for the ONE lightweight submission grappling world title at ONE 168: Denver on September 6 at Ball Arena.

Tickets for ONE 168 are available at Ticketmaster.