Mikey Musumeci says he's taken a scientific approach to prep for Gabriel Sousa's 'tiny' frame: "It's a whole different style"
As someone meticulous even with the most minute of details, there's no surprise how Mikey Musumeci is gearing up for his pivotal rematch that gets underway at ONE 167 on June 7.
While his redo against Gabriel Sousa was only confirmed earlier this year, there hasn't been a day that has gone by where 'Darth Rigatoni' has gotten over his north-south choke defeat to the Brazilian powerhouse in September 2021.
Speaking to ONE Championship, the New Jersey native opened up about his obsession with pulling one back against Sousa. He went on to add how he needs to throw some science in the process given the Brazilian's size.
Mikey Musumeci shared:
"I'm obsessed about how to control someone with tiny legs, tiny arms. It's a whole different style of jiu-jitsu. So, I really treated Gabriel as like a science experiment, like a lab experiment, you know, and I did a lot of work for this match."
Gabriel Sousa must be ready for an evolved Mikey Musumeci
For the ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion, work for this hotly anticipated rematch perhaps even started the day Sousa became only the second athlete to tap the American submission hunter.
Case in point, he's turned over a new leaf since suffering only the fifth defeat of his career. 'Darth Rigatoni' has gone on an incredible 14-0 run, with six of those triumphs unfolding on the global stage of ONE Championship.
Most recently, the Evolve MMA megastar forced a tap from Shinya Aoki with the creator's very own iconic submission – the Aoki Lock – at ONE Fight Night 15 this past October.
As such, Sousa cannot take his previous victory over Mikey Musumeci as a determining factor in their next scheduled bantamweight submission grappling tie.
The ONE world champion has redemption on his mind and he is game as ever to overcome what comes his way to extend his winning ways at ONE 167 in U.S. primetime this Friday, June 7.
North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can catch the entire card live and for free.