Mikey Musumeci has just announced that he suffered a torn lung during his preparation for ONE 168 on September 6th, 2024, and was unable to compete as a result. The match had gone through a rollercoaster of changes over a period of just a few days leading up to the event, and eventually did not go ahead at all. Originally, Musumeci was supposed to be moving up to lightweight to challenge Kade Ruotolo for the title there. That meant that he was moving up three weight classes and instead of preparing to weigh in at 135lbs as normal, he was able to weigh up to 170lbs.
Ruotolo was forced to withdraw due to injury on just a few days’ notice and naturally that left both Musumeci and the promotion in a bit of a difficult situation. They were left to find an opponent willing to step up to face Musumeci without any real preparation and in the end it was Carlos ‘Bebeto’ Oliveira who accepted the call to replace Ruotolo. The change of opponent also required a change in the weight limit for the match, and it was moved to Musumeci’s regular weight class of 135lbs. Faced with a short-notice weight-cut in order to be able to defend his flyweight title, Musumeci could not make weight and failed the hydration test.
This meant that Musumeci would be stripped of his ONE Championship flyweight submission grappling title and the promotion quickly got to work discussing a catchweight match with Carlos ‘Bebeto’ Oliveira instead. That version of the match also fell through and the entire bout was scrapped from the card, but this new information sheds more light on the reasons why. The week has gone from bad to worse for Mikey Musumeci and he was actually advised by doctors that the torn lung he suffered could have had fatal consequences if he chose to compete.
Mikey Musumeci revealed the news that he had suffered a torn lung during his preparation for ONE 168 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
