Tammi Musumeci took on Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin at ONE Fight Night 12 on July 14th, 2023 and the pair put on a tough battle when they took to the mats. While Musumeci has been working her way towards becoming the first female submission grappling champion in ONE Championship history, Alequin was making her debut for the promotion in the match. Although it was Alequin’s promotional debut, she’s no stranger to high-level grappling matches and had actually faced Musumeci in two matches that went to decision before. When the third match between the pair was announced, it was clear that a convincing win here would lay the groundwork for either woman to get a title-shot.
Once the match started, both women got to work quickly by fighting for the grips they wanted in the clinch. Alequin bullied Musumeci into the corner of the ring and shot in for a double-leg takedown but she got caught with an arm-in guillotine counter. She bailed on the takedown but Musumeci kept the guillotine and jumped guard in order to try for the finish, switching to a traditional guillotine as well. Alequin stayed standing with Musumeci’s legs wrapped around her waist and started to fight the hands to escape. She managed to free her neck but Musumeci kept her ankles crossed and managed to bring Alequin down to her knees to work from guard.
As soon as Tammi Musumeci uncrossed her ankles, Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin took advantage and started using a great standing passing game to get around her guard. Musumeci was working from reverse de la riva but Alequin was shutting her down at first, before sitting to prevent her from getting sight of the back. Both women were attacking the legs and pummeling for their preferred positions at first, but Musumeci switched tactics and tried to transition to the back instead. Alequin defended that perfectly and retained guard as Musumeci stood up to pass herself. She went to her knees to pass and Alequin hit a simple sweep from there, driving Musumeci backwards and getting hit with a counter back-take as she pressed forward.
Alequin shut that down again and immediately got to work attacking Musumeci’s legs, although Musumeci was defending well and pummeled her legs back into position for the back-take again. She got the deep into the crab-ride this time and even locked her hands around Alequin’s waist, slowly inching her way to full back control. Alequin started to stand and rolled through for a kneebar, although Musumeci recognized the threat early and started to free her knee-line. She couldn’t get all the way out but started to crank on a toehold instead, with Alequin returning the favor with a toehold of her own.
Both women disengaged and started to stand but Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin shoved Tammi Musumeci back down and started to pass once again, keeping her legs at a distance this time. Musumeci managed to bring a leg close and tried to jump onto a straight ankle-lock but Alequin escaped, so she used the motion to transition to the crab-ride. Alequin inverted and tried to enter 50/50 but Musumeci disengaged and re-pumeled her way back through for another crab-ride. Alequin was still preventing her from finishing the back-take though, so she switched to attacking a toehold instead. Musumeci couldn’t control Alequin well enough to finish it and ended up trying to use it to stand, but Alequin shoved her down and started passing again.
She forced Musumeci into de la riva and tried to back-step but Musumeci started working for a berimbolo as soon as she did. Musumeci managed to trap an arm and used it to come up on top, although she couldn’t stay there for long with Alequin creating the space to move. Alequin stood up and started passing with her legs at a distance for a while before sitting back to attack the legs. She returned to standing when that didn’t work, but leapt on the opportunity to attack a kneebar when the chance came. Musumeci freed her knee-line again and got to her knees to pass this time, but Alequin quickly put her on her back again and stood up.
Alequin was working much faster to pass this time and back-stepped as soon as Musumeci got a hook in for de la riva, quickly transitioning to a crab-ride attempt of her own. Musumeci countered brilliantly though and actually started to take Alequin’s back, sinking in one hook as she turned to turtle. Musumeci was working for the rear-naked choke but she couldn’t finish it or secure her second hook before the time ran out. In the end, Tammi Musumeci was awarded the unanimous decision victory over Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin, primarily owing to the early deep guillotine attempt.
Tammi Musumeci and Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin put on a great match at ONE Fight Night 12 and they were the first match on the card where grappling was allowed, but they certainly weren’t the last. Later on in the night, Garry Tonon competed against undefeated Russian prospect Shamil Gasanov in a co-main event fight that would determine who sat at the top of the promotion’s featherweight division ready for a title-shot. In the end, Tonon locked up a beautiful kneebar to both win the fight and earn a Performance of the Night bonus as well.
ONE Fight Night 12 Full Results
Superlek Kiatmuu9 defeats Tagir Khalilov via TKO – Punches (Round 2, 1:42)
Garry Tonon defeats Shamil Gasanov via Submission – Kneebar (Round 2, 2:26)
Amir Aliakbari defeats Dustin Joynson via TKO – Submission to Punches (Round 1, 1:48)
Yuya Wakamatsu defeats Xie Wei via TKO – Punches (Round 1, 2:03)
Akbar Abdullaev defeats Aaron Canarte via TKO – Spinning Back Kick and Punches (Round 1, 0:41)
Phetjeeja Lukjaoporongtom defeats Lara Fernandez via TKO – Punches (Round 1, 0:26)
Banma Duoji defeats Walter Goncalves via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 5:00)
Tammi Musumeci defeats Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin via Decision – Unanimous (Round 1, 10:00)
Bogdan Shumarov defeats Constantin Rusu via TKO – Head Kick (Round 3, 1:33)
The full ONE Fight Night 12 event replay, including the match between Tammi Musumeci and Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin, has been uploaded to the official ONE Championship YouTube channel:
