ONE Championship news roundup (May 9)

Welcome to today's edition of the daily Sportskeeda ONE Championship News Roundup, where we present the promotion's most important stories.

We’ll be discussing Mikey Musumeci overcoming a great burden to beat Osamah Almarwai, Rodtang calling out Takeru Segawa, and Demetrious Johnson’s decision on his career.

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#3 Mikey Musumeci reveals he battled through personal issues

Mikey Musumeci defended his ONE flyweight submission grappling world title at ONE Fight Night 10, but it wasn’t easy, even in the leadup to the match.

This past weekend, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ defeated Osamah Almarwai with an incredible rear-naked choke to keep his belt and win a US$50,000 performance bonus. However, despite his brilliant performance, Musumeci revealed that he had a tough time preparing for his match.

During an interview with ONE commentator Mitch Chilson inside the Circle, Mikey Musumeci said:

“I’m so happy right now guys. The last two months have been crazy for me. I went into another depression time. I was barely even able to focus on training, I was so depressed. There’s a quote ‘God is with those who are patient’. I just stayed patient. I kept working hard and now I’m here again. I’m just so blessed to be here right now.”

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#2 Rodtang calls out Takeru

Rodtang Jitmuangnon is setting his sights on a fresh new challenge following his latest win.

‘The Iron Man’ knocked out WBC Muay Thai international champion Edgar Tabares in the co-main event of ONE Fight Night 10 to retain the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world championship this past weekend. After his win, he called out ONE Championship’s latest signee, Takeru Segawa.

In a backstage clip, Rodtang said:

“Takeru. C’mon. Fight me. Let’s go!”

Rodtang previously called out Takeru after the Japanese striker announced that he was a free agent. With ONE Championship announcing that they have signed Takeru, the dream matchup looks closer to reality than ever before.

Of course, both Rodtang and Takeru have plenty of other options in terms of opponents, considering the tremendous depth of the promotion’s roster that includes the likes of world champions Joseph Lasiri, Jonathan di Bella, Superlek Kiatmoo9, and Jonathan Haggerty.

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#1 Demetrious Johnson’s retirement still up in the air

One of the biggest questions people had heading into ONE Fight Night 10 was what Demetrious Johnson will do after his match against Adriano Moraes.

‘Mighty Mouse’ hinted that this might be his career's final mixed martial arts bout regardless of the outcome. After defeating Moraes and keeping his ONE flyweight world title, Johnson was asked by ONE commentator Mitch Chilson if this was truly it for the American icon.

He replied:

“This is the beautiful thing about this sport, is I can do as I please. I can walk off into the sunset, go home, talk business, see what happens.”

It looks like we may have to wait a bit more to see what’s next for Johnson. However, if he decides to keep on fighting, he will surely not be short on exciting challengers in the ONE Championship roster.