Mikey Musumeci says he’s done making people tap out to his submissions

ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci is, beyond a doubt, one of the most lethal submission artists today.

His wildly inventive attacks and near-perfect grasp of technique makes him almost impossible to prepare for. In his last outing, the complete destruction of Gantumur Bayanduuren at ONE Fight Night 6, saw 'Darth Rigatoni' destroy the hapless Mongolian with brutal leg locks.

Bayanduuren refused to tap out, which resulted in him sustaining severe damage to his knee that sidelined him for a year. In a recent "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit featuring Musumeci, he was asked what type of submission a fighter should absolutely tap to:

Mikey Musumeci's reply to an AMA question on Reddit

'Darth Rigatoni' said:

"Well after my last match, I am done trying to make people "tap." I think chokes are the gold standard; no one gets hurt, and we don't need to make anyone tap; they can take a nice nap and then train the next day :)"

Aside from Mikey Musumeci's beautiful sense of compassion for his opponents, it must be noted that "tapping out" to a submission does not make you any less of a warrior. It's no different from a checkmate in chess. Getting out-maneuvered and caught is part of the game and there's no need to "tough out" of a submission if it means it can induce career-ending injuries.

What Musumeci did to Bayanduuren was a series of leg-locks that the Mongolian grappler could have tapped out to in the first or second time Musumeci locked in his submissons. Instead, he refused to submit despite the fact that his knee and ankle had popped more than a few times already.

In his first bout at ONE Championship, Musumeci faced MMA and grappling legend Masakazu Imanari in which he choked the Japanese legend with a rear-naked choke. Imanari, a known legend and veteran of the sport, had no problem tapping out as he knew it was pretty much a checkmate at that point.

Look to see Mikey Musumeci attempt more chokes than joint submissions as he faces Osamah Almarwai at ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video: Johnson vs. Moraes III. The event, which marks ONE's first on-ground live event on US soil, will air live from the 1stBank Center in Colorado on May 5th.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch ONE Fight Night 10 live and for free in U.S. primetime on May 5.