Mikey Musumeci believes that aside from Brazilian Joao Gabriel Sousa’s strength, his physical shape is his biggest challenge.
Musumeci will look to avenge his 2021 loss in a rematch against Souza at 145 pounds on June 7 at ONE 167 in Bangkok. Musumeci has not lost a fight since his first bout with Souza, where he was submitted. Reflecting on that loss, Musumeci acknowledged that Souza was clearly the stronger contender.
Musumeci is determined to do whatever it takes to get revenge, and has been working on improving his strength with Sam “Coach Cal” Calvitta at The Training Lab. Aside from strength, Musumeci believes Souza’s build is his biggest challenge. According to “Darth Rigatoni,” fighters with relatively short limbs like Souza have an advantage in no-gi jiu-jitsu because they are harder to grab.
“Gabriel has very small limbs. He has no arms or legs. In no-gi, that works to the advantage of someone with a dinosaur build. A guy with that build has a really hard time in gi because there’s grips on his sleeves and his legs, so it’s really easy to control him, whether it’s an omoplata or taking his back,” Musumeci explained. “But in no-gi, that build doesn’t need as much. Because he has no limbs, he just needs to keep moving every second. And if he has a lot of power, he can explode and use that to his advantage. So I think he’s an ideal build for no-gi.”
Controlling her shorter opponent was a major focus for Musumeci as she prepared for her next bout, which she is treating like a science experiment with the goal of improving her jiu-jitsu as much as possible.
“He’s like a missile. Very small and explosive. He comes at you and then he goes at you. Boom, boom!” Musumeci said. “He’s very physical and aggressive and his size definitely plays a part because he’s hard to control. So for me it was a challenge to learn how to control someone that small, with his very skinny arms and legs. It’s completely different from a tall monkey in no-gi. So I think that was my learning curve in this fight.”
“I was really focused on how to control an opponent with skinny legs and skinny arms, which is a totally different style of jiu-jitsu. So I treated Gabriel like a science experiment, a lab experiment, and I practiced a lot for this fight. So, in jiu-jitsu in general, I just think I’m trying to perfect my jiu-jitsu. My goal in jiu-jitsu is to be masterful. So I had to master how to handle both body types.”
