Nong-O to mold Mikey Musumeci into a complete Muay Thai fighter: “I plan to give him in-depth techniques”

Mikey Musumeci is receiving Muay Thai training from a legend of the sport.

Musumeci made his ONE Championship debut in April 2022. Since then, he’s become a superstar in submission grappling by winning five consecutive matches, including four with a world title on the line.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ plans to continue dominating the ONE flyweight submission grappling division, but he’s also working toward a new challenge. The 27-year-old American has been eyeing a transition to mixed martial arts or Muay Thai by evolving his striking skills to complement his world-class grappling.

Now, it turns out Mikey Musumeci will have a former world champion helping him train. During an interview with ONE, Nong-O had this to say about working with the American superstar:

“As for Muay Thai, now we need to teach him all the basics in the first place, like how to kick, how to punch, how to use Muay Thai weapons, and how to make them accurate and solid at the same time.”

Nong-O continued:

“In the next class, I plan to give him in-depth techniques on how to throw each kind of Muay Thai weapon and timing.”

Before a hypothetical transition to the striking discipline, Mikey Musumeci will have to tackle another high-profile submission grappling match coming up.

On October 6, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ is scheduled to face Japanese legend Shinya Aoki in a non-title openweight bout. The intriguing matchup will go down inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium as a part of ONE Fight Night 15.

Aoki isn’t unfamiliar with competing in submission grappling matches under the ONE banner. The 40-year-old former ONE lightweight MMA world champion has faced off against world-class grapplers Garry Tonon, Marat Gafurov, and Kade Ruotolo.

ONE Fight Night 15 can be seen for free by North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription live in U.S. primetime on Friday, October 6.