Mikey Musumeci has just revealed that his first UFC BJJ title-defense is currently in the works and the planned opponent is Geo Martinez. As one of the promotion’s inaugural champions, the expectation is that Musumeci will feature quite heavily in the promotion’s upcoming events. They’re clearly wasting no time in getting him his next match either, as Musumeci also revealed that the match should be taking place in October if the current plan goes ahead. This would put it in line with UFC BJJ 3, as the promotion has already released their slate for 2025 and this event is booked for October 2nd.
Martinez does make sense as a first title-defense for Musumeci too, as the two men have a little bit of unfinished business. They have only competed against each other once before, at the Road to ADCC event back in 2021. Musumeci won that match 6-0 on points and it was an impressive display, but what happened after the match drew the most attention. Musumeci confronted Martinez after the match and explained in the post-match interview that he was unhappy with some of Martinez’s behaviour leading up to the event. Musumeci even started talking about wanting a rematch with him back then, even though he won the original match.
The match never came to fruition even though it was talked about for quite a while, and everything appeared to blow over. Then it was finally booked again 4 years later, Musumeci withdrew from the match due to being involved in a ‘huge project with the UFC’. It quickly became apparent that what he was referring to was the formation of UFC BJJ, and him acting as a coach for the inaugural season of UFC BJJ: Road to the Title. The show lasted a week and Musumeci had one of the biggest roles, helping to push the grapplers training under him as far as they could go.
As is tradition, the coaches fought each other in the finale and the promotion’s bantamweight title was on the line. Musumeci submitted Rerisson Gabriel at UFC BJJ 1 to become the inaugural champion, once again proving that he’s one of the very best grapplers in the world at any weight class. The question of who Mikey Musumeci would defend his UFC BJJ title against arose and given their history, Geo Martinez is an ideal candidate. Not only does it give both men the chance to have some closure on a rivalry that started several years ago, but it also allows the promotion to make good on a match they promised the fans.
Mikey Musumeci announced that his first UFC BJJ title-defense is intended to be against Geo Martinez in a recent story shared to his official Instagram account:
