In funny branding choice, Mikey Musumeci, has taken to describing Brazilian jiu-jitsu—the so-called “gentle art”—as ‘the most violent’. This is laughable to most BJJ fans as well as casuals.
Musumeci made a series of bold claims about the format and intensity of this new competition platform—chief among them, the sheer violence.
“The matches themselves, I have to say, are like the most violent matches I’ve ever seen in jiu-jitsu,”
Musumeci said during an interview.
It’s a striking choice of words, especially from a figure long associated with the guard pulling, tactical, control-heavy style that defined his reign as a multi-time IBJJF and ONE FC champion. But this time, Musumeci insists, the rule set forces athletes to pursue one thing only: submissions.
Musumeci likens the UFC BJJ’s arena to a skate park—designed to ensure constant motion and discourage stalling or reset calls.
“The octagon we have, it’s kind of like a skate park. It goes on a ramp… the movement doesn’t stop. You slide down, you can’t just pause and wait. If you run up, you slide back down,”
he explained.
Musumeci claims the result is unrelenting submission-hunting from start to finish.
“The ref is never stopping the match. You only score with submissions… It makes it like violent fighting, you know? So you’ll feel like you’re watching a fight.”
The only problem with this claim is that we’ve seen the first two episodes. In episode two UFC’s editorial team even hid the round clock in an attempt to keep the audience engaged through the entire BJJ exchange.
Musumeci believes this ‘new take’ on the sport could finally change that.
“The problem is with jiu-jitsu points and running out of bounds, all these strategies make it so boring… MMA fans are like, ‘What is this sh*t? These guys are just hugging each other.’”
By contrast, the ‘new format’ is designed to strip down grappling to its most primal appeal—break something or choke someone. And Musumeci, for all his squeaky-clean presentation, is now echoing the language of a prizefighter.
“I was just preaching to my athletes… if you’re fighting in the UFC, you have to finish fights. You have to go for submissions. You got to go for kill.”
Beyond the mat design or the highlight-reel potential, Musumeci sees UFC BJJ as the future of grappling. Not just a show, but the beginning of a sport-wide shift.
In a rant that resembles indoctrination Musumeci lauds:
“I think it’s going to tremendously help. I think the first thing that’s going to happen is everyone’s going to get FOMO the second that they realize how insane this is. So everyone from other organizations is going to flock to UFC. And if they can’t flock to UFC, they’re just going to miss out on this insane opportunity.”
“And I think that that’s going to be it. I think our sport—everyone’s going to focus on doing this and being in UFC. I think that that’s what you’re going to see. Like, all these other organizations and things are just going to—I don’t want to say die—but kind of die. Because you’re either in UFC, in the biggest thing, or you’re not. You know? And you’re going to feel that if you’re not with us.”
For the record UFC BJJ pays star athlete Andrew Tackett $15,000 to show $15,000 to submit. It’s not exactly life changing money. And if you’re stuck over there thinking that this is just the start – here’s the kicker. UFC Atlanta happened this past weekend and the star studded UFC card was in one of the rare jurisdictions which reveal the paychecks in their entirety — former UFC champion Kamaru Usman who boasts of the second longest winning streak in the promotion’s history got just $250,000. The card grossed $3,239,744 at the gate alone, making it the second highest-grossing North American Fight Night ever.
