Mikey Musumeci "Darth Rigatoni"

Michael Musumeci Jr. was born on July 7, 1996, in Marlboro, New Jersey, and started training jiu-jitsu at around four years old — remarkably young even by the standards of a sport whose top competitors often begin as children. He trained under Fernando 'Cabeça' at a local New Jersey academy before beginning a run through the IBJJF's youth and colored-belt divisions that has few parallels in the sport's history: Musumeci won world championship titles at nearly every belt level on his way up, from juvenile blue through brown belt, developing a modern, mobility-heavy style built around the berimbolo, crab ride, and back-taking sequences that dominated lower-belt grappling in the early-to-mid 2010s.

He was awarded his black belt by Gilbert 'Durinho' Burns in 2015, at just eighteen years old, becoming one of the youngest competitors to reach the sport's top rank. At black belt, Musumeci shifted focus toward the roosterweight and light-featherweight divisions and became a fixture atop the IBJJF World Championship podium, winning four black-belt World titles between 2017 and 2021, along with an IBJJF World No-Gi Championship. In 2019, he set a competitive milestone by recording the fastest submission in an IBJJF adult black-belt final, underscoring both his technical precision and his aggressive, finish-first approach compared to many of his lighter-weight peers, who often play a more positional, points-based game.

As his career progressed, Musumeci built a reputation as one of the most dangerous leg-lock specialists in the lighter weight classes, developing a modified heel-hook entry from crab-ride and back positions that the community nicknamed 'the Mikey Lock' after he used it to finish Richard Alarcon at the inaugural WNO bantamweight event in October 2021. In 2022 he signed with ONE Championship, where he won the promotion's first-ever Flyweight Submission Grappling World Title in a decision win over longtime rival Cleber Sousa, then defended the belt multiple times over the following two years, including a finish over veteran Masakazu Imanari that earned a performance bonus.

Musumeci left ONE Championship in November 2024 and signed with UFC Fight Pass, where the promotion had launched a dedicated BJJ division. In June 2025 he faced Rerisson Gabriel for the inaugural UFC BJJ Bantamweight World Championship and won by heel hook, becoming the first-ever champion in that division and adding another 'first' to a résumé already full of them; he defended the title successfully in the months that followed.

Off the mat, Musumeci is known almost as widely for his personality as his grappling — his nickname 'Darth Rigatoni,' a mash-up of his love of Star Wars and his Italian-American heritage, has become a genuine personal brand, and he is one half of a notable sibling act in the sport alongside his sister Tammi Musumeci, also an elite black-belt competitor. Between his run of IBJJF titles, his ONE Championship reign, and his UFC BJJ title, Musumeci has a legitimate claim to being the most decorated lightweight-and-below grappler of his generation, and his transition across three different major promotions in three different rule sets is close to unprecedented in the sport.

Leg-lock and crab-ride specialist known for an aggressive, finish-first game at the lighter weights