Mikey Musumeci is now insisting he’s all about “respect” and “old school” jiu-jitsu values—just as he headlines UFC’s debut BJJ event. But the community isn’t buying it.
“In general, there isn’t much trash talk in jiu-jitsu, except with a few people, like Craig (Jones) and Gordon (Ryan). But with the others, it’s not very normal. In this series, there wasn’t much trash talk between me and Rerisson, the other coach I’m against. I think we can show a part of jiu-jitsu that MMA doesn’t have: respect. Different values, jiu-jitsu has more values, generally. Not now, because our sport is in a mess with these people. But Rerisson and I have a lot of respect for each other. We have some people trying to gain publicity by talking sh*t, this is growing. But it wasn’t like that in the past. Gordon, Craig, they talk more. But I prefer to do ‘old school’ jiu-jitsu.”
Musumeci made the comments in a Portuguese-language interview—perhaps hoping they’d fly under the radar. But they didn’t. Instead, they’ve drawn widespread backlash from the same grappling community he’s helped divide over the past year with repeated public jabs at Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones.
Musumeci has spent much of the past year using both names to fuel headlines and boost his own profile. From calling out Ryan’s physical appearance—questioning how PEDs age people—to taking shots at Jones’ promotional style, Musumeci has repeatedly positioned himself in contrast to them. Yet now, as the UFC tries to sanitize and corporatize jiu-jitsu, he wants to draw the line at “respect”?
Musumeci’s recent attempt to adopt a holier-than-thou stance echoes a failed PR playbook already pushed by UFC exec Claudia Gadelha, who famously tried to brand Jones as a bad role model. Her post promoting “discipline” and “wholesome values” was met with harsh efficiency by Jones, who fired back with a viral clip from her past offering explicit relationship advice. The community overwhelmingly sided with Jones, exposing just how tone-deaf the UFC’s branding pivot has been.
The hypocrisy isn’t new for Musumeci. After his win over Gabriel Sousa at ONE 167, he went on an unhinged rant accusing Sousa of disrespecting his family—accusations Sousa publicly refuted as baseless and baffling:
“Mikey’s speech didn’t make much sense to me,” Sousa said. “He was saying I talked a lot of crap about him for years and disrespected his family, but that’s not true at all… There’s literally no bad blood.”
The contradiction is glaring: the same athlete who used inflammatory claims to fuel a media cycle now wants to be the poster boy for old-school humility—on the UFC’s payroll, no less.
That paycheck might be the real story here. Despite Musumeci’s talk of “values,” the UFC’s jiu-jitsu debut has already been slammed for its disrespectful pay structure—offering grapplers just $15,000 to show and another $15,000 only if they win via submission. Compared to the million-dollar prize pools at Craig Jones Invitational, the UFC’s offer looks like a desperate attempt to monopolize the sport during a pivotal moment of growth.
Nowhere in Musumeci’s interview did he address this growing frustration—only vague nods to respect, old values, and veiled shots at the same figures he’s leaned on to stay relevant. The irony writes itself: a man who used controversy to climb is now pretending he never picked up the ladder.
And while the UFC might be banking on Musumeci to push their new “clean-cut” vision of grappling, the community isn’t blind. It knows what this is—a rebrand in the middle of a cash grab. A man who called out Gordon Ryan’s face, Craig Jones’ tactics, and Gabriel Sousa’s character now wants to sell the sport back to us under a sanitized banner of “respect”?
We’ve seen this script before. And we’re not buying it.
