Tammi Musumeci and Bianca Basilio met in the very first match of ONE Fight Night 8 on March 24th, 2023, and both women put everything they had into coming away with the results they wanted. It was actually Musumeci’s debut for the promotion, although Basilio has competed for them before and has already won her first match against Milena Sakumoto. Either woman could put herself in a great position with a win in the match, as they’d establish themselves as the top competitors in the ONE Championship strawweight grappling division.
Both women came out handfighting, with Musumeci attempting to sit to guard several times in the first minute but was unable to do so with any connection to Basilio and she was stood back up. When she was finally able to do so, she managed to set up De la Riva guard and inverted to attack the legs from there. Musumeci got close to securing the saddle but Basilio was pummelling her legs very well and escaped to standing. Musumeci transitioned to De la Riva once again and attempted the same inversion but she couldn’t get as close as the first time and Basilio escaped a little more easily this time.
The pair were reset to standing and Musumeci attempted to pull guard once again but didn’t have enough connection to make anything happen. She stood back up and Basilio forced her against the cage, but she took advantage and jumped up to wrap her legs around Basilio in closed guard. Basilio worked to break the guard and shucked her off to the ground to start passing. Musumeci created some space though and Basilio returned to standing to pass from there. Basilio sat back on a leg attack but couldn’t get anything going so she stood back up once again.
Musumeci managed to off-balance Basilio a few times but couldn’t get anything concrete to work and the referee reset them to standing. Basilio was more aggressive now and Musumeci managed to sit to Reverse De la Riva, but the referee stood them up again shortly after. Basilio was working for collar-ties but Musumeci managed to jump to closed guard, with Basilio dropping her to the ground and breaking the guard to start passing again. She tried to cartwheel over her opponent but couldn’t secure the pass, before Musumeci sat her down and started to attack the legs.
Musumeci managed to get a straight ankle-lock grip but couldn’t solidify a controlling position and Basilio stood up to escape. The referee stood Musumeci up and after a little handfighting Basilio pulled guard really aggressively, sending her opponent over the top of her. Basilio took top position and almost passed to north-south but the constant threat of inversion forced her to disengage. She tried a few different passing techniques like pinning the leg and shooting for double-unders but Musumeci was able to retain guard each time.
With around thirty seconds left, Basilio sat into single-leg X and tried to crank on the heelhook but Musumeci used her free leg to pummel in and defend the attack. Basilio returned to passing and the time ran out, with her on top but neither woman getting any convincingly deep submission attempts during the match. It was a very tough match to call at ONE Fight Night 8 and really could have gone either way but when the results were given, the judges awarded the decision win to Tammi Musumeci over Bianca Basilio.
ONE Fight Night 8 Full Results
Superlek Kiatmuu9 defeats Danial Williams via Knockout – Punches (Round 3, 1:55)
Kiatmuu9 retains the ONE Championship flyweight kickboxing world championship
Allycia Rodrigues defeats Janet Todd via Decision – Unanimous (Round 5, 3:00)
Rodrigues retains the ONE Championship atomweight muay thai world championship
Seo Hee Ham defeats Itsuki Hirata via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 5:00)
Akbar Abdullaev defeats Oh Ho Taek via TKO – Punches (Round 1, 0:44)
Zhang Peimian defeats Torepchi Dongak via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Aslanbek Zikreev defeats Rui Botelho via Decision – Split (Round 3, 3:00)
Keito Yamakita defeats Alex Silva via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 5:00)
Preliminary Card
Eddie Abasolo defeats Niclas Larsen via KO – Punch (Round 2, 2:14)
Iman Barlow defeats Ekaterina Vandaryeva via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Tammi Musumeci defeats Bianca Basilio via Decision – Unanimous (Round 1, 10:00)
The full ONE Fight Night 8 event replay, including Tammi Musumeci v Bianca Basilio and all of the above results, is available to watch on official ONE Championship YouTube channel:
