Mikey Musumeci Aims to Clean Up Jiu-Jitsu, Calls for Professionalism with UFC’s Help.
Mikey Musumeci has officially signed with the UFC, becoming the first Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist to secure an exclusive deal with the promotion. While many would see this as just another milestone in his illustrious career, for Musumeci, it’s about more than competition—it’s about transforming grappling into a truly professional sport.
After spending years competing with ONE Championship, the 28-year-old New Jersey native is set to make his UFC debut on Thursday night in Las Vegas. For Musumeci, partnering with the UFC represents an opportunity to bring much-needed structure and integrity to the world of jiu-jitsu.
“What I’m doing right now is definitely the most important thing for grappling in terms of having a stable platform,” Musumeci shared during the UFC 310 media day. “A lot of jiu-jitsu right now is very unstable. There’s a lot of horrible ethics, morals, and I hope now that with the UFC we can change that and make it a professional sport.
“Because it hasn’t been a professional sport, jiu-jitsu, with people blatantly using [performance-enhancing drugs]. They’re not athletes. They really don’t have the values of martial artists. I really just want to change that and give us this platform at UFC and become professionals.”
Musumeci’s stance on PED use in jiu-jitsu is unyielding. While he refrained from calling out specific names, he made it clear that the issue is widespread.
“99 percent of jiu-jitsu is on steroids,” Musumeci said. “At least let them get off steroids a little bit, like a few months. They probably need like a year, six months to adjust, and then maybe they could adapt with Darwinism.”
He hopes the UFC’s involvement in grappling will help establish the drug-testing standards and professional framework he believes the sport desperately needs.
“UFC’s a professional company,” he said. “The way we’ve been in jiu-jitsu, we’ve been amateurs. We really are just in this barbaric amateur phase of jiu-jitsu. Now UFC is starting something professional. I’m so blessed for them for putting the effort into jiu-jitsu to change it. I’m so eager for them to do that.”
Musumeci envisions a future where grapplers are treated as true professional athletes, complete with belts, drug testing, and organizational stability.
“I need to first grow us and UFC to the point where we are professional athletes,” he explained. “What does that look like to me? That looks like we have belts, we have everything just like MMA fighters. Drug testing and belts and stability.
“We need drug testing. Completely make Darwinism with the people on steroids. They either have to just get off and they either die or they adapt. Then the next generation realizes they can’t just start steroids when they’re like 10 years old. I want to change that. That will give me the most fulfillment.”
While Musumeci has individual goals he hopes to achieve, including a potential future transition to MMA, his immediate focus is on setting a new standard for jiu-jitsu under the UFC banner. For him, signing with the UFC is just the beginning of a much larger mission to redefine the sport he loves.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.
