Mikey Musumeci is one of the top BJJ competitors of his generation and he’s coming up on one of the biggest matches of his career, a rematch against Gabriel Sousa at ONE 167 on June 7th, 2024. Sousa is the last man to beat Musumeci all the way back in 2021 and he’s one of only two people to submit him throughout his black belt career. That match was back at the Who’s Number One Championships almost 3 years ago, but they haven’t crossed paths since then because they generally inhabit different weight classes. We sat down with Musumeci in order to talk about the rematch and he explained that there were a few different motivations behind it:
“I’ve been asking for this match for over a year now. I’ve been very eager to get this match back, you know? Some people have complained about my opponents in ONE Championship being a lot of MMA people, but the truth is all the top people in my division declined having matches with me multiple times. So the only people that have been accepting were MMA people, and then everyone gets mad at me that I’m fighting MMA people. Like, guys I try to fight everyone and have matches with everyone but nobody is accepting, so how is that my fault? So then I said f*ck it, I’ll just go up.”
He isn’t just moving up in weight to have a match with anyone though, the Gabriel Sousa rematch is what Mikey Musumeci was after and he’s worked hard to get ONE Championship to agree to it:
“I’ve been bothering ONE for a year for this match like ‘can i fight Gabriel Sousa?’ and they’re like ‘yes you can, if he can make your weight class’ and Gabriel can’t make my weight class so I said to ONE ‘OK, he can’t make the weight class so can I please go up?’ and at first they weren’t letting me but now they’re like ‘fine, you can go up’.”
Musumeci expects things to go very differently this time around even though he’s still going to be moving up in weight to face Sousa, and there’s a few factors behind that:
“The last time I fought Gabriel it was like my first year of no gi, so I was just transitioning to no gi. Gabriel’s a super high level competitor, right? He got second at ADCC in this weight class. So I feel like skill-wise I’ve made huge leaps since my last performance with him, and I’m like ten times stronger. So I’m technically way better, and of course Gabriel is way better now too since we’ve both had a lot of years, so he’s technically developed more and I’ve technically developed more so I’m just so excited now to see where I’m at progress-wise.”
Although it’s still a tough challenge regardless of how much better-prepared he might be, Musumeci is focused on what the rematch against Sousa means for him:
“These matches for me, I’ve already won every title I wanted to in Jiu-Jitsu honestly, but for me it’s just me rolling with the top guys and seeing what I have to get better at and keep progressing. My goal is to have the best Jiu-Jitsu I can have, so Gabriel is a great test for me. Obviously my progress from the last time I fought him until now is what I’m interested in seeing, my whole goal is progress.”
Moving up in weight is something that’s important to Musumeci too, and it’s been a part of his career for quite some time now. Despite being a roosterweight or light-featherweight competitor, Musumeci has fought in absolute divisions at major IBJJF events and beaten competitors much bigger than him. He was very open about the fact that he wants that to be a part of the legacy that he leaves behind in the sport:
“Something about me I want known is that I don’t wanna be remembered as a champion that won my weight class. I wanna be remembered as somebody that, no matter what obstacle they had in front of them they challenged themselves. They put themselves in uncomfortable spots to overcome, because I feel like in life and Jiu-Jitsu it’s very similar. We’re all gonna have obstacles in our life, we’re all gonna have hard things and we have to go and overcome them. We can’t run away from them. This obstacle I had was in heavier divisions than my division.”
This rematch against Gabriel Sousa is just the latest obstacle that Mikey Musumeci plans on overcoming, and he also explained that there aren’t any obstacles left in his regular weight class:
“It’s easy for me I could just stay in my weight class, keep winning every match, and I know I have a skill level above all the opponents in my weight class. But now I’m blessed with the opportunity to face the top guys in the world in heavier weight classes and I wanna push myself to the best I can be. At the end of the day we only have one life and I wanna look back on my life and be like ‘alright, I challenged myself when I didn’t have to’. That’s what gives me the highs now at this point, I don’t really get highs winning any more.”
He explained a little more about those highs, and what really gives him the motivation to keep competing:
“I feel like the highs come from uncertainty and obstacles that we face, and challenging ourselves and facing them again, you know? We either fall or we overcome, right? If we fall then we learn for it and then we go again. That’s what I wanna be known for, for me that’s more meaningful, and constantly seeking growth. Constantly seeking improvement, that’s what I wanna be known for.”
That brought Mikey Musumeci right back to the rematch with Gabriel Sousa, and it was clear that the prospect of facing the last man to beat him was something that really lit a fire under him recently:
“Jiu-Jitsu is not like boxing, it’s not like MMA where you have this record. It’s more like you’re just training in the gym, you f*ck up and you lose in something, and then you just go again and you try again. There’s no brain damage, there’s no nothing, you’re just constantly looking for improvement. So Gabriel is that training partner for me now, to see if I have improved. I worked really hard, the last like 8 months f*cking I worked my *ss off. Like every second, I’m the most disciplined I’ve ever been. I’m eating correctly, I’m doing conditioning, so that’s why I feel ten times stronger than I was physically and I think that’s going to be a big factor in this match that my strength is a lot higher than it was.”
Musumeci thinks his newfound dedication to life as a professional athlete will make a difference against Sousa, and he’s had this feeling before:
“I’m more like when I did the (IBJJF European Championship) at openweight, when I beat that 400lbs guy. I was a lot stronger and bigger physically at that time, because i was doing more light-featherweight. So I got myself a little heavier, more like Mikey when he’s light-featherweight instead of Mikey when he’s roosterweight.”
That edition of the IBJJF European Championship he’s talking about was all the way back in 2020, so it’s been quite a while since he’s been in this shape. Musumeci explained why that it’s been so long and he was quick to acknowledge who made him get back to this point again:
“I haven’t been disciplined like this in years. The reason is that when you get to a certain point with your skill level being a lot higher than the other opponents, especially in your division, it makes you a little less obsessed with having to do everything right. Like eating right or doing conditioning. Basically, I didn’t even care how I felt because I knew my skill level was so high that I could beat all these opponents just with my Jiu-Jitsu. So that’s why I’m grateful to Gabriel because he really made me, in my mind, become an athlete again. Actually eat right, sleep right, and do everything as an athlete would. Because I didn’t have to be an athlete before, I was more of just a hobbyist Jiu-Jitsu nerd just having fun and eating whatever I want. This should be a different Mikey than I’ve seen in years and I feel different. I did the homework, I did everything in school, and now I’m just so excited for this test.”
The energy that Mikey Musumeci was giving off was clear, he looks invigorated and ready to take on the world ahead of his rematch with Gabriel Sousa. As we wrapped things up, he just wanted to say one last thing about his outlook on the loss to Sousa and how it relates to life in general:
“I’m just blessed and so grateful for all the opportunities in my life, and even for the obstacle of failure. I’m grateful for that because god gave me that failure to overcome. That’s what life is about, us overcoming all the failures that we have in life.”
