Mikey Musumeci picked up another impressive win at UFC BJJ 5 on Thursday night.
Taking on Shay Montague, Musumeci stated he was going to show off his wrestling and not immediately dive for leg locks. The American grappler even donned the Dagestani chin strap to show his commitment to the game plan.
The UFC BJJ bantamweight title was on the line as well as the middleweight title in the co-main event of the evening.
The first round saw Mikey Musumeci and Shay Montague in a stalemate. Montague consistently
inverted positions looking for leg locks and Musumeci, in his Dagestani arc, refused to engage with leg lock attacks of his own. In between rounds, Montague told his coaches that he pulled something in his leg and went into the second round presumably injured.
In the second round, “Darth Rigatoni” managed to finally pass the guard of Montague until the Scotland grappler found a leg and forced Musumeci to disengage. Near the end of round two, Mikey Musumeci was in a leg entanglement and found his opportunity and snatched up an ankle lock forcing Montague to tap quickly.
The bout, which started slow, ended in a flash as Musumeci fell back on the ankle lock and Montague tapped quickly.
Musumeci wanted to do more wrestling, but the approach of Shay Montague was to look for leg entanglements. This forced Musumeci to play top and prevented any wrestling. Musumeci was disappointed in his post-fight interview.
“[It’s] a little bittersweet,” Musumechi said. “I wanted to do more passing. I think I passed him twice. But I wanted to finish in the pass. I felt like I got that foot lock really fast.”
But the 29-year-old gave his opponent credit, citing how tricky his guard was.
“Shay’s guard is incredible, he’s like a human pretzel, so bendy. Eventually I got through. I did play top this match, it was just fun for me working something new and just not finishing the match immediately.”
“This match I wanted to do something new and be out there longer.”
For his callout, Musumeci had his eyes on a huge prize. Arman Tsarukyan, the No. 2 lightweight in the world according to MMA Fighting’s global MMA rankings, was the ire of his wrath. Tsarukyan called out actor Tom Hardy for a grappling match. Hardy declined the call out but Musumeci took offense anyway.
“My friend Tom Hardy, Arman called out for a grappling match. At the time he was a purple belt. He called out a hobbyist purple belt for a grappling match. How about he competes against a jiu jitsu person in a grappling match? I’ll go up to his weight class, and we do a grapple match. That will be fun.”
Elsewhere on the card, Ronaldo Junior defeated Norway’s Tarik Hopstock via unanimous decision to retain his middleweight title. Andy Murasaki submitted Andy Varela with an armbar in round one and Rebeca Lima won her bout via a second round ankle lock. Opening the card, Jalen Fonacier snagged a heel hook on Carlos Oliveira and finished the fastest submission in UFC BJJ history.
