Mikey Musumeci on his gut-wrenching food poisoning case: “I didn’t even know if I was gonna live”

Mikey Musumeci had arguably the toughest battle of his life heading into ONE Fight Night 15.

The reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion was hospitalized following a nasty case of food poisoning he suffered in Thailand a couple of weeks before his bout against Japanese legend Shinya Aoki.

Musumeci, thankfully, made a full recovery and is ready to face Aoki in their openweight submission grappling match this Friday, US primetime, at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

In his pre-event interview with the South China Morning Post, Musumeci said:

“I'm really excited about this matchup. But I'm I'm more excited not about the opponent. I'm more excited about showing myself that again, with adversity with everything that I just went through last week, where I didn't think I would be here. I didn't even know if I was gonna live.”

He added:

“That I'm here and I could do it. You know, I want to show myself that I could do it. And that's so motivating for me.”

Musumeci revealed in his Instagram Stories that he ate some bad watermelons sold on the streets which led to a couple of visits to the emergency room.

Nevertheless, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ is back to health and ready to extend his perfect run in ONE Championship.

The 27-year-old is 5-0 in ONE Championship and is coming off a marvelous submission win over ONE strawweight MMA world champion Jarred Brooks to retain the ONE flyweight submission grappling world title at ONE Fight Night 13.

Aoki, meanwhile, is a former ONE lightweight MMA world champion and arguably the best pure grappler in MMA history.

‘Tobikan Judan’ has 47 wins in his entire MMA career, with 30 coming via submission.

ONE Fight Night 15 is available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in North America.