"God gave me that failure to overcome" - Mikey Musumeci says submission loss to Gabriel Sousa made him a better grappler
Mikey Musumeci is out for revenge at ONE 167. He returns with the chance to tick an opponent off his bucket list.
There aren't many things that 'Darth Rigatoni' has yet to accomplish in the submission grappling world. With that in mind, if there's anything that is going to motivate the ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion, it is correcting some mistakes from earlier in his career.
Three years ago, Musumeci suffered his last defeat when he was submitted by Gabriel Sousa. Since his arrival in ONE Championship, booking a rematch with his former foe has been high on the agenda for the flyweight champion, who has pushed for this matchup on several occasions.
Now, the rematch is just around the corner and set to go down at ONE 167 on June 7 inside the Impact Arena in Bangkok.
In an interview with Jits Magazine ahead of his chance to avenge his loss to Sousa, Musumeci spoke about how his defeat the last time that they met hasn't been a negative factor in his life.
In fact, he credits it with making him even better, as setbacks often do:
"I'm just blessed and so grateful for all the opportunities in my life, and even for the obstacle of failure. I'm grateful for that because God gave me that failure to overcome. That's what life is about, us overcoming all the failures that we have in life."
Mikey Musumeci will be stronger than before
Gabriel Sousa will surely be confident coming into ONE 167, but so will Mikey Musumeci.
Despite Sousa getting the win last time, 'Darth Rigatoni" learned a lot from that previous meeting and, as he alluded to, that has only made him better.
Whilst Musumeci will also be expecting Sousa to make some adjustments since 2021, he knows where he is currently at and is coming off of a run of great performances as he takes this momentum into the rematch.
ONE 167 will air live in US primetime on June 7, free of charge for North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription.