Mikey Musumeci speaks on how to handle world championship success

Grappling wizard ‘Darth Rigatoni’ Mikey Musumeci has addressed how to handle world championship success ahead of his grappling match this month.

Now world champion for the last three months after beating fellow BJJ black belt Cleber Sousa, Musumeci likes to remind himself that while success is welcome, the key to staying grounded is to live selflessly and help others.

The 26-year-old phenom reiterated the following axiom on his Instagram page that read:

“Just because you won a world title in an activity doesn’t make you above or better than anyone else. You can be an idiot and loser in life (which a lot of world champions and 'successful' people are unfortunately) One day, we will all die and we will all die the same with no titles or materials to show off to others. The only thing that will stay is the impact you had on others around you.”

The newly-crowned ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion is gearing up for his first world title defense on Friday, January 13. He will battle Mongolian challenger and combat sambo stylist Gantumur Bayanduuren in the co-main event at ONE Fight Night 6 on Prime Video.

Originally scheduled to face sambo gold medalist Sayan Khertek, Mikey Musumeci will now face arguably an even tougher challenge as Bayanduuren is also a BJJ brown belt with MMA experience.

Fans are thrilled to see a worthy replacement make his promotional debut against the Italian-American grappler. The fiery event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand and will be aired live and for free on US primetime for all Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America.

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The Ruotolo brothers call Mikey Musumeci’s back take of Imanari 'sneaky'

There’s no denying that Mikey Musumeci is one of the most innovative grapplers of his generation. His debut performance alone against grappling veteran Masakazu Imanari at ONE 156, exemplified what Marcus Buchecha referred to as 'old-school vs. new school'.

From the start, each fighter had their moments. Both attacked the legs to grip an ankle lock but in one of the sequences, Imanari over-compensated for one of the ankle locks. This gave Musumeci enough space to scramble to the top position. With Musumeci capitalizing on the error, there was no way back for Imanari.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ eventually scored a never-before-seen back take, which left grappling brothers Kade and Tye Ruotolo falling off the edge of their seats. Kade recalled:

“He almost eased up the pressure so Imanari turned into him and then used that momentum to jump all the way around the back. It was sneaky - and just beautiful. ”

Tye added:

“Super high-level. Not a lot of guys think that way. You know, give up a little position to take a big one.”

Watch Mikey Musumeci’s crazy back take below: