Mikey Musumeci promises he won’t butt-scoot against Jarred Brooks

Reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci heard the criticism for his penchant for butt-scooting and has vowed to remove it from his arsenal.

Ahead of his third world title defense against Jarred Brooks at ONE Fight Night 13: Allazov vs Grigorian on Prime Video this Friday, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ addressed the elephant in the room.

Brooks, the reigning strawweight world champion who comes from a fearsome wrestling background, pointed out Musumeci’s affinity for “butt-scoots”.

It’s basically the equivalent of guard-pulling in MMA matches, where grapplers stay in a sitting position and “scoot” forward or backward to avoid wrestling exchanges.

While butt-scooting is standard in BJJ matches, it’s not exactly eye-pleasing for spectators, especially for new fans of submission grappling.

‘Darth Rigatoni’, of course, has made it his personal mission to elevate the sport into the mainstream. As such, he promised to stop doing the unappealing move and take on Brooks head-on.

The 27-year-old BJJ maestro said during his OFN13 pre-event interview with the South China Morning Post:

“So one thing I want to make clear. A lot of people are like talking about the butt-scooting and stuff like we're done with butt-scooting guys. That’s fucking done. Okay, no more butt-scooting right?,” he said.

“So this matchup is gonna be two guys running straight at each other. We're not going to have that bullshit hand-fight wrestling.”

Meanwhile, Brooks is known for his signature double-leg takedowns and vicious slams, so Musumeci must proceed with caution for this match-up.

However, at the end of the day, the Evolve MMA superstar has the utmost confidence in his grappling abilities and believes he can submit ‘The Monkey God’ from any position.

ONE Fight Night 13 will emanate from the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok on August 4. The entire event is free of charge for those with a Prime Video membership in North America.