Mikey Musumeci recalls how champion vs. champion grappling match with Jarred Brooks materialized

ONE flyweight submission grappling world titleholder Mikey Musumeci said his scheduled champion-versus-champion showdown next week against strawweight mixed martial arts king Jarred Brooks was a result of a callout made on social media.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ will defend his grappling world title against ‘The Monkey God’ in an all-American clash at ONE Fight Night 13 on Prime Video on August 4 in Bangkok.

It serves as the co-main bout of the event happening at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium and is available live and for free to Prime Video subscribers in North America.

Speaking to ONE Championship, Mikey Musumeci shared how the much-awaited champion-versus-champion joust came about, describing it as him answering the challenge put out on Instagram by Jarred Brooks.

The 27-year-old Italian-American champion said:

“I’m on Instagram one day. All of a sudden I get tagged in this video and it’s Jarred Brooks, the current ONE strawweight world champion, saying he wants to do a grappling match with me. I see this video and I’m like, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect this.’ But yeah, that’s how this match came about.”

ONE Fight Night 13 will see Mikey Musumeci make a third title defense since becoming world champion last September.

He is coming off a submission victory over Yemeni challenger Osamah Almarwai in their title clash in May at ONE’s first-ever live on-ground event in the United States.

Out to end the reign of ‘Darth Rigatoni’ is Jarred Brooks, who is moving up in weight for ONE Fight Night 13 in line with his attempt to be a two-sport ONE world champion.

It is his first grappling match under the promotion but warned that his jiu-jitsu skills are very sound and should not be underestimated. Jarred Brooks was last in action in December where he dethroned Filipino Joshua Pacio as ONE strawweight MMA world champion.