“I’m so sick of you guys saying I’m looking for easy matches,” Mikey Musumeci fired back at detractors who questioned his recent callout of Geo Martinez.
Mikey Musumeci is tired of people saying he cherry-picks opponents. The solution seems obvious: stop cherry-picking opponents.
Despite his protests, Musumeci‘s recent record reads like a carefully curated highlight reel rather than the resume of someone seeking elite competition. His move to ONE Championship has been marked by a parade of aging MMA stars, unknown sambo competitors, and grapplers whose best days are clearly behind them.
Take Geo Martinez, Musumeci‘s latest callout. Martinez is a decade older, with his last marquee achievement being a 4th place finish at ADCC in 2015—nearly a decade ago. Since then, he has won “here and there” in various competitions but hasn’t appeared at ADCC, widely considered the Olympics of no-gi grappling and the most relevant measure of elite performance. His recent resume consists largely of team events, which, while entertaining, hardly constitute proof of current elite-level capability.
ONE Championship has also fed Musumeci a steady diet of unknown sambo competitors who sound impressive on paper but have never competed at ADCC or any other major grappling event of note. These manufactured matchups create the illusion of challenging opposition while providing Musumeci with favorable stylistic pairings against opponents unfamiliar with the current meta of elite submission grappling.
“My goal was to grow our sport to larger audiences,” Musumeci explained, pointing to his debut against Japanese legend Imanari as “the most viewed match in one championship history for grappling.”
The string of aging MMA stars presents an even clearer picture. While these athletes may have name recognition and audiences, MMA grappling bears little resemblance to modern BJJ. The sports have diverged significantly, with MMA competitors focusing on different skills and having different conditioning demands. Beating athletes at the tail end of their careers in a different discipline hardly constitutes elite grappling competition.
Musumeci‘s complaints about cancelled matches ring hollow when examined closely. His grievances about Kade Ruotolo, for instance, conveniently omit that he dropped out of their scheduled bout with a torn lung—a withdrawal that created its own controversy. When elite grapplers do become available, Musumeci‘s team seems to find reasons why the timing isn’t right or the circumstances aren’t perfect.
The pattern suggests someone who wants to appear active but only under carefully managed conditions. This isn’t the approach of someone genuinely seeking the toughest competition available.
Musumeci‘s victory over Gabriel Sousa at ONE Championship stands out as his only recent win against legitimate, current elite opposition. This single bout demonstrates he’s capable of performing at the highest level when he chooses to do so, making his other opponent selections all the more questionable.
“If I accepted to compete with Baby Shark 6 times, Kade, Gordon and Craig how did I run from anyone?” he challenged critics.
“I just wanted to compete and do matches at that point,” he said, emphasizing his desire to stay active rather than sit idle.
“I’m so sick of you guys saying I’m looking for easy matches,” Mikey Musumeci fired back at detractors who questioned his recent callout of Geo Martinez.
“I am not on ster*ids it’s not sustainable for me to be in camp killing myself many months and to be told I will be competing with this person every month then changed again,” he explained.
“I’m doing the best I can and working to change our sport so we have testing and more of a better situation than it has been in the past,” he stated.
The Sousa match proved Musumeci can still hang with elite grapplers, which makes his subsequent return to facing aging MMA stars and unknown sambo competitors even more disappointing for fans hoping to see him test himself against the current generation of top-tier athletes.
Musumeci‘s claim that he’s focused on “growing the sport” and “expanding audiences” sounds noble but doesn’t excuse the pattern of mismatched competition. Elite sport grows through elite competition, not through manufactured victories against inferior opponents. Fans can recognize the difference between legitimate competition and promotional theater.
If Musumeci genuinely wanted to grow the sport while maintaining his competitive integrity, he would seek out the best available opposition – and it’s clear neither he nor his current promotion are interested in that.
