Mikey Musumeci looks back on ‘cool’ but ‘hard’ fight against Shinya Aoki: “I was really messed up that whole time”

At ONE Fight Night 15, Mikey Musumeci stepped inside the Circle once again to produce another win and keep his undefeated streak alive in ONE Championship.

However, this time around, this match-up was different to his other contests since signing with the promotion for two key reasons.

First, his ONE flyweight submission grappling world championship wasn’t on the line this time around, as he moved up for a dream match-up.

Facing MMA and grappling legend Shinya Aoki, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ was proud to share the stage with one of the pioneers that paved the ground that he and so many others have walked down.

Pulling off the submission win, it appeared to be a routine fight week for the world champion but that was far from the case.

Battling illness throughout the build-up to the fight, Mikey Musumeci has to battle through adversity to even make it to the Circle on fight night.

Despite securing another win under the ONE Championship banner, the match-up took a lot out of ‘Darth Rigatoni’ in the process.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, he recapped the hurdles he had to face before competing in front of the fans and defeating a legend in Aoki:

“My fight with was was very cool but it was very hard on me you know being full-blown sick, I had food poisoning and the doctor told me don't train for two weeks and then I was in fight week and I trained for like three days and I fought and it was very hard on my body I was really messed up that whole time but I got through it.”

Watch the full interview below:

North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE Fight Night 15 via the free event replay.