In a stinging segment on Morning Kombat, Craig Jones didn’t just take aim—he lit up what sounded unmistakably like Mikey Musumeci, using him as a cautionary tale of how even the most decorated jiu-jitsu athletes can be wildly unprepared for the business side of the sport.
“The financial literacy among the athletes in this business is not high,” Jones said bluntly. “And you know what? Even the people in the sport that are at the top that you think are intelligent.”
Jones didn’t name names but the puzzle pieces assembled themselves. He described an elite competitor who had previously signed a notoriously strict contract with an unnamed organization—strongly implied to be ONE Championship, where Musumeci held a lucrative deal. According to Jones, he approached this athlete to compete at CJI 1 and was floored by what he heard.
“I remember I was trying to get him to do CJI One. And I said, ‘Well, what does your contract say?’ And this is a guy that studied law. I believe his sister’s a lawyer. And he’s like, ‘I didn’t read the contract. I just signed it.’”
Let that sink in. Mikey Musumeci, who once considered walking away from jiu-jitsu entirely to pursue law school and whose sister Tammy Musumeci is a lawyer, allegedly didn’t even bother reading the contract that dictated his professional future. Instead, he reportedly signed on blind—despite being one of the most educated minds in the sport.
The irony here is razor-sharp. Musumeci didn’t go to law school but still postured himself as an academically inclined athlete. Instead, he made a call to Michael Zenga and opted to bet on jiu-jitsu. That gamble paid off in terms of exposure and opportunity but if Jones is to be believed, it came at the cost of legal awareness.
Worse yet, Musumeci isn’t just another face on the mat anymore. He’s now deeply involved in UFC’s push into the jiu-jitsu world, reportedly sitting in on high-level meetings to help steer the ship. That kind of access—and implied control—makes his alleged contractual naïveté even more concerning. If someone with his résumé and connections didn’t read his own deal, what hope is there for the average competitor?
“So, like when some of the elite level guys, even the guys at the top of the sport don’t read contracts,” Jones said, “I think it’s almost unsalvageable.”
Jones, who’s building a reputation as the sport’s most vocal labor advocate, has never shied away from calling out what he sees as negligence and exploitation in jiu-jitsu’s structure. Whether it’s poor pay, one-sided contracts or blind loyalty to promotions, he’s been on a crusade to wake grapplers up from their submission-induced daze. He even joked that his mission was like “explaining labor rights to cavemen,” quoting a YouTube comment that hit a little too close to home.
CJI2 happens August 30th and 31st in Las Vegas.
