“The recovery is killing me a bit” - Mikey Musumeci still adjusting to the demands of moving up three weight classes 

Mikey Musumeci has gone through a series of grueling training regiment ahead of his bid to claim the ONE lightweight submission grappling world title.

'Darth Rigatoni' is scheduled to clash with the reigning champion Kade Ruotolo at ONE 168, which will air live in U.S. primetime on September 6 from the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado.

Throughout those hardcore grappling sessions, Musumeci has been nothing but improving, especially when he trains with fellow decorated world champions such as Kennedy Maciel and all-time BJJ great Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles.

However, the pressure of grappling at a high level for hours on end, day in and day out, has been taxing on Musumeci’s body and nervous system.

The BJJ wizard shared the implications of these volume sessions to ONE Championship in his recent interview:

“It’s very difficult recovering when I’m training at this intensity – and I need to for lightweight because it’s more power. But the recovery is killing me a bit."

He added:

"So I’m really working hard to figure out how I could recover so I could keep doing this type of volume training.”

Tickets for ONE 168: Denver are available via Ticketmaster.

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Mikey Musumeci pulls out all stops for ONE 168

Although Mikey Musumeci seems to have nothing to lose in his next challenge at ONE 168: Denver against ONE lightweight submission grappling king Kade Ruotolo, this match is still a huge ask for the flyweight world champion.

'Darth Rigatoni' has to move three weight classes above him, but he willingly took the risks knowing that this could be an enormous moment for submission grappling.

The reason is because both Musumeci and Ruotolo aren't just only two of the best in the sport, but they are also bearing the flag in their generation, and looking at their matchup will definitely be something special for all the fans in the world.