Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Mikey Musumeci has revealed that former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson has agreed to personally mentor him as he pursues a future in mixed martial arts.
Speaking on an episode of the Overdogs BJJ podcast alongside co-host Hector Vasquez, Musumeci shared that he had recently FaceTimed Johnson to lock in the arrangement.
“I was just FaceTiming Mighty Mouse yesterday and he’s going to mentor me and really help me with MMA,” Musumeci said. “I can’t have a better brain than Mighty Mouse behind me helping me.”
The 29-year-old grappling competitor explained exactly what he is asking of the former champion, describing a direct and efficient approach to his development.
“I don’t want to waste years learning bulls**t and then having to stop learning and then switch to other things. Can you just come in, look at me, and be like, all right, you’re doing this, this, and this? And I just blindly listen. That’s what I want.”
Musumeci drew a parallel between how Johnson would guide his MMA development and how he himself approaches coaching jiu-jitsu, saying that an experienced eye can immediately cut out the unnecessary work.
“Mighty Mouse is so great training for me, right? Because he’ll instantly know how I feel. He knows my strengths and he can instantly just make my game around that. He’s not going to have me do something that will take years to develop skills to do.”
Johnson is scheduled to work with Musumeci in person starting in July. The flyweight grappler described his trust in the former champion plainly.
“I just want his mastermind brain to mentor me and I’ll just follow him. He’s someone I could trust blindly because he’s just a GOAT. For me, he’s the little GOAT of MMA and then Jon Jones is the big GOAT.”
Musumeci was straightforward about the gaps in his game, acknowledging that without sufficient striking, stepping into the cage would be premature. With the right guidance, however, he believes his ground game will translate differently than what MMA audiences have seen from most grapplers.
“If I have adequate enough striking and I could get a hold of somebody, I could Khabib them, especially in that weight class.”
