Mikey Musumeci says Gilbert Burns is pushing him to transition to mixed martial arts

ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci is so great at what he does, that fans are starting to wonder how he’ll fare in mixed martial arts.

Among those who want to see Musumeci transition from grappling-exclusive matches to full-blown MMA fights is his mentor and good friend, Gilbert ‘Durinho’ Burns.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ revealed this interesting tidbit in a recent interview with TMZ Sports:

“Gilbert [Burns] wants me to do MMA so bad. You know, because Gilbert [Burns] gave me my black belt.”

Mikey Musumeci, of course, is considered one of the most brilliant minds in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu scene for his amazing conquests under the ONE banner.

It’s not surprising that the 27-year-old American sensation traces his BJJ lineage to Burns, who’s a third-degree black belt and one of the most prolific submission hunters in MMA today.

In a previous interview with FloGrappling, Burns revealed that Musumeci used to take private lessons under him. However, the young prodigy became so good in such a short amount of time that he refused to charge him anymore and they just became training partners.

Burns awarded him his black belt at age 18, just a year after Musumeci got promoted to brown belt by another BJJ great, Guilherme Mendes.

Here’s the full interview:

By the looks of it, the fifth-ranked UFC welterweight contender wants Musumeci to follow in his footsteps and use his own BJJ wizardry to take the MMA world by storm.

In the meantime, the Evolve MMA representative will keep doing his thing in submission grappling when he takes on a BJJ and MMA icon next month.

Musumeci has signed on to face Shinya Aoki in an openweight grappling affair at ONE Fight 15: Tawanchai vs. Superbon on Prime Video at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.

The stacked card will air live in US primetime on October 6, free of charge for Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.