“We’re Just Constantly Changing Things” – Mikey Musumeci Shares a Glimpse of His Training Ahead of ONE 168

Current ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Champion Mikey “Darth Rigatoni” Musumeci is already known for his insane training regimen, but he’s kicking up the intensity even further in preparation for the biggest test of his career.

On September 6, at ONE 168: Denver, he will move up three weight classes to challenge Kade Ruotolo for his ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Title, live in U.S. primetime at Ball Arena.

Mikey Musumeci’s intense training regimen with BJJ legendsADVERTISEMENT

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That matchup marks one of the biggest in the history of grappling – and Musumeci is preparing accordingly. Most days, he’s spending sun up to sun down immersed in training, whether it’s sparring, strength and conditioning, or film study.

He spoke about his training camp: “It’d be about 10 to 12 hours total of the amount of work I’m putting in on these days of studying, training, everything.”

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After spending the first part of his week at home in Las Vegas, Musumeci then travels to Los Angeles where he trains under the watchful eye of BJJ living legend Rubens “Cobrinha” Charles. His primary training partner on those days is “Cobrinha’s” son, BJJ World Champion Kennedy Maciel: “On Thursdays and Fridays, Kennedy and me go to war. We freaking kill each other. Like, we do, three hours of training, just me and him, and ‘Cobrinha’ supervising. But it’s basically 10-minute rounds of us trying to kill each other, figuring new things out.”

Musumeci and ‘Cobrinha’s’ systematic approachIndeed, Musumeci and “Cobrinha” have embraced a systematic and scientific approach to training. As “Darth Rigatoni” explains, they are constantly fine-tuning techniques and evolving their game plan. It’s that rigorous approach that has Musumeci’s confidence at an all-time high:

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He further added “In this training, the techniques that we figure out are insane because we’re just constantly changing things, constantly. I’ll be working one thing, and then Kennedy starts stopping what I’m working.”

“Then all of a sudden, I’ll make an adjustment, then it’s working again. Then Kennedy stops it again. So then we just do this over and over, and it makes our level, like, another level. So it makes us develop things that I feel years ahead of what other people are doing right now.”