Mikey Musumeci shuts down trilogy talks with bitter rival Gabriel Sousa: "He lost the opportunity"

Mikey Musumeci is always calm and composed throughout fight week, but one opponent brought out his intensity and competitiveness. 'Darth Rigatoni' hasn't reached where he is in his career without being a highly driven competitor who is always looking to evolve.

However, even a world class grappler like Musumeci can be beaten and for him, the last time he suffered a defeat was several years ago to Gabriel Sousa.

Since their first meeting, there was a lot of tension between the two men with the ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion believing that Sousa had talked down on him ever since and tried to discredit him.

The two men ran it back at long last at ONE 167, where Musumeci moved up to bantamweight and made quick work of his rival in the rematch.

Finishing the fight in just over three minutes, he now sees no reason to revisit this match-up after being able to prove his point, as he spoke about in a recent interview with Cageside Press:

"No, he lost the opportunity to compete with me when he talked crap. I definitely wouldn't even give him the rematch, but I just wanted to kill him. Now, I don't care. He could have that win with me when I had COVID. Let him celebrate that for the rest of his life."

Watch the full interview below:

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Mikey Musumeci is on to bigger and better things already

A major point of contention between Mikey Musumeci and Gabriel Sousa was the Brazilian's refusal to move back to flyweight for their rematch. Having gone up to bantamweight, 'Darth Rigatoni' is continuing to put on additional size for a match-up of a very different kind.

His return sees him move up to lightweight to challenge Kade Ruotolo in the co-main event of ONE 168 on September 6. The difference this time around is that at the Ball Arena, it will be nothing but respect between the two elite grapplers.

Tickets for ONE 168: Denver are available via Ticketmaster.