Mikey Musumeci Interested in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu vs. Sport Sambo Challenge

Last week, Mikey Musumeci made history by becoming the inaugural One Championship flyweight submission grappling titleholder. Musumeci took on long-time rival Cleber Sousa at One on Prime Video 2 in their rubber match, settling the score once and for all after outpointing his foe on all scorecards. Musumeci aggressively attacked Sousa with all sorts of submissions and nullified the initiative of his opponent, who didn’t even manage to pass guard. In the post-fight interview, Musumeci reiterated his wish to face Demetrious Johnson in a custom-rules submission grappling competition. While “Mighty Mouse” is weighing the invitation, Musumeci challenged any combat sambo champions competing in the 135-pound weight class.

“If not ‘Mighty Mouse,’ I would really like to face the best sambo world champion there is in submission grappling format because submission grappling is a format, right? And jiu-jitsu and sambo are both forms of submission grappling. Now, the type of sambo that Khabib does and those guys, they do combat sambo. That's with strikes, that's like MMA. But there's another type of sambo, it's called sports sambo. Sports sambo is more like jiu-jitsu. They just do submissions and takedowns, which is just like jiu-jitsu. I would love to experience fighting the best world champion in sambo in my category, and we both fight each other in a submission grappling format. I think that would be really exciting because my whole life I only competed with Brazilians and Americans. I have no idea what it's like to fight the top sambo people. I don't know, will they kill me? Will I beat them? There’s a lot of questions, so it would be really exciting for me to have that uncertainty, like what it is to face them? I know that a lot of people would enjoy that as well.”

(00:00) Intro
(00:19) Italian greetings
(00:40) Training in Singapore
(00:56) Whether he’s looking for a quick turnaround
(01:26) His appendix surgery
(03:04) How it impacted his training camp
(04:23) Taking pride in Italian food
(04:53) His strategy for Souza
(07:31) Not allowing his opponent to pass guard
(08:57) Defeating his opponent in their rubber match
(09:28) Updates on his not-a-callout to Demetrious Johnson
(10:41) Expressing his desire to face a sambo champion
(12:51) Whether he learned the Stamp dance
(13:35) Outro