Mikey Musumeci is happy to be part of ONE Championship, and he believes it’s only a matter of time before fans in his home country embrace it as much as he has. 

The ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Champion has been one of the faces of his sport in the promotion since his debut last year, and he remains unbeaten in the world’s largest martial arts organization.

Mikey Musumeci feels ONE Championship will reach great heights in the future

Apart from giving him the opportunity to showcase his talents to a global audience, Musumeci says ONE has also given him an even greater appreciation for the striking arts because of its roster of elite athletes. 

“ONE has the best Muay Thai people in the world, right? Like, we literally have Rodtang, Superlek, Tawanchai, all the best Muay Thai people in the world. So, there’s no way that you could argue the level of the Muay Thai, the level of the stand-up with kickboxing and Muay Thai in ONE Championship compared to [the Ultimate Fighting Championship],” he told Sherdog.com in an interview. 

Like most combat sports fans in America, Musumeci also watched the UFC in his youth. But now that he is part of ONE, “Darth Rigatoni” is quick to point out the differences between the two promotions. 

While he understands why people would size up both combat sports giants against each other, he says they cannot be adequately compared because of the Asia-based promotion’s variety of martial arts disciplines and the values their athletes exemplify. 

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“I also see ONE Championship being different than the UFC. I see it as a whole different thing. I don’t see them the same. People comparing them, I think ONE is a lot different. It’s a martial art organization; it has multiple disciplines of martial arts. UFC is just MMA, and it’s more about s— talking. It’s a different style,” Musumeci said.

“It’s a brand new market for America”- Musumeci

“Since I was a little kid, I watched Tito [Ortiz], Chuck Liddell, all those guys, right? And I’ve never seen anything in my life like the ONE Championship fight between Rodtang and Superlek.

“The energy in that place when they fought, I was shaking. Like, I was shivering and shaking just from how powerful that energy was. So, it’s really exciting what ONE Championship is doing.”

In partnering with Amazon Prime Video Sports, ONE has become more accessible than ever to fans across North America. The organization also debuted on U.S. soil this year with ONE Fight Night 10 in May, which sold out weeks before the enthralling show took place in Colorado. 

With such an exciting product, the planet’s most elite strikers, and a plan to mount more events in the U.S. in the coming year, Musumeci believes ONE will gain an even bigger following in the country. 

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“It’s a brand-new market for America,” he said. 

“America doesn’t know. It’s just the beginning. We’ve only had one event in the U.S., so America is going to go crazy over ONE Championship in the upcoming months to years. I see it exploding here.”