Mikey Musumeci says his matches will show general public “how dangerous jiu-jitsu can be”

Mikey Musumeci plans to showcase the danger of competing in submission grappling matches.

Over the past few years, ONE Championship has invested their resources into a full-time expansion into submission grappling. Since then, several superstars have emerged from the sport, including Musumeci, Danielle Kelly, and the Ruotolo brothers Tye and Kade.

Despite the severe injuries caused by submission grappling, the sport has gained a reputation among some fans for being boring or undangerous. Mikey Musumeci plans to change that narrative while competing under the ONE Championship banner.

During an interview with ONE, Musumeci had this to say about the situation:

“Yeah. So, I feel that my last two matches or last three matches in ONE, even the match I didn't finish against the Mongolian guy where I broke his knee was like one of the most viewed matches, right? So even though it wasn't a finish, it was still a highly viewed match. And it was important for spectators to see how dangerous jiu-jitsu can be.”

Musumeci continued:

“You know, they see people tap all the time and then they don't really see how dangerous a submission could actually be if you don't tap. So it was important for viewership like to get more educated on the danger of submissions. So now they see, oh, wow, it is dangerous. So then it makes it more exciting for fans."

On Friday, October 6, Mikey Musumeci plans to extend his undefeated promotional record of 5-0 in a non-title bout. The reigning flyweight submission grappling world champion is scheduled to face Japanese legend Shinya Aoki in an openweight matchup at ONE Fight Night 15.

Aoki has proven he is a world-class grappler throughout his 58-fight professional MMA career. With that said, ‘Tobikan Judan’ has only competed in three submission grappling matches under the ONE banner. He holds a win against Marat Gafurov that split his losses against Garry Tonon and Kade Ruotolo.

The former ONE lightweight MMA world champion will undoubtedly have a size and strength advantage against Musumeci. The question is, will those attributes be enough to defeat ‘Darth Rigatoni’?

Mikey Musumeci vs. Shinya Aoki goes down inside the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium during U.S. primetime on Friday. The entire ONE Fight Night 15 event can be seen live and for free by North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.