"Been training for about 21 years!" - Mikey Musumeci shares photo of himself as a 4-year old jiu-jitsu athlete

ONE Championship's surging submission grappler Mikey Musumeci is a living, breathing reason why you should start training your kids in martial arts. They might just become world champions in the future. The multi-time World Jiu-jitsu Championship gold medalist has been training since he was four years old.

In a recent photo he shared on Instagram, we saw four-year-old Musumeci sporting a nice white gi, a yellow belt, and a wide smile. The now-26 year old grappler looked back at the ups and downs of his jiu-jitsu journey in the caption:

"I started jiu jitsu when I was 4 years old so I have been training for about 21 years! So many good and bad memories and I am grateful for them all. They made me who and where I am today and where I will be tomorrow. ❤️"

It is quite something to see how far Mikey Musumeci has come, considering that he is not even 30 years old yet. At 26, he is arguably still about to reach his athletic prime. It's a scary thought for all the grapplers in his weight class.

Of course, the always conscientious Musumeci even translated the caption into two different languages: Portuguese, the language of the sport of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Indonesian, one of the languages in the country he now resides in.

He did this because he is Mikey Musumeci, the nicest guy in the world who can strangle people twice his size without much effort. Seriously, this guy is so awesome.

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Mikey Musumeci showcased the new age of jiu-jitsu in his ONE debut

At ONE 156, in front of a global audience, Mikey Musumeci showed what the new breed of jiu-jitsu looks like.

Gone are the basic pressure passes and submission moves. Now we have crazy positions like the berimbolo and crab ride, not to mention complex passing and submission moves that would take an entire course to understand.

The sport is constantly evolving and Musumeci is one of the flag-bearers of the modern style of jiu-jitsu. His wildly inventive and complex grappling attacks were put on display against an old-school legend in Mazakazu 'Ashikan Judan' Imanari.

Imanari is one of the older legends of grappling and reinvented the leglock system in MMA and jiu-jitsu. In more ways than one, Imanari was the early 2000s equivalent of what Musumeci is today: an inovator.

When the two clashed inside the cage, the new swallowed the old. Although Imanari had some early success, Musumeci had him beat in almost every position en route to a rear-naked choke win in the first half of the 12-minute grappling match.

Watch their full fight here.