Mikey Musumeci has just announced that his rematch with Geo Martinez has now been cancelled due to a ‘huge project’ that the UFC now has planned with him. This would have been just the second time that Musumeci has competed for the promotion since signing a groundbreaking exclusive contract with them last year. It was huge news at the time and it was taken as a signal that the landscape of professional Jiu-Jitsu was changing, but so far very little has actually happened. Musumeci won his promotional debut against Felipe Machado at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 9 but almost 6 months later, that’s remains sole outing.
Rumours were swirling early on and sources close to the situation confirmed to Jits Magazine that the UFC was planning a grappling league. Although there was no official major announcement from the UFC to begin with, it didn’t take long for small bits of information to leak to the public. Dana White mentioned a grappling reality show in passing just a few weeks later and after a little bit of silence, it was another interview that saw Kade Ruotolo drop the bombshell that Musumeci would coach opposite Gordon Ryan. It seemed at that point like the wheels were turning and there would be some kind of concrete announcement relatively soon.
News has slowed since then though and nothing more has emerged, so White’s claim that the UFC would invest over $10 million into Jiu-Jitsu over the next year didn’t seem as though it was going to come to fruition. As we approach the halfway mark in 2025, there’s still nothing official and UFC Fight Pass Invitational 11 is a show like any other they’ve done before. Musumeci withdrawing from the Martinez match for another project with the UFC could be a signal that this is all finally coming to a head though, and fans might finally get to see the show they’ve been promised for months.
Mikey Musumeci announced the news that his match with Geo Martinez was cancelled and hinted at his ‘huge project’ with the UFC in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
