Mikey Musumeci couldn’t have asked for a better ONE Championship submission grappling debut.
On Friday at ONE 156, Musumeci defeated MMA legend Masakazu Imanari by submission in under four minutes. The performance was so dominant that Musumeci was awarded a $50,000 performance bonus after the match.
Watch the full match between Mikey Musumeci and Masakazu Imanari below.
After immediately sitting to guard, Musumeci engaged in a brief leg lock battle with Imanari — one of the best leg lockers ever in MMA — before coming up to top position in side control. From there, Musumeci had complete control of the match. He quickly transitioned to Imanari’s back, trapped one of Imanari’s arms, and sunk in a clean rear-naked choke for the tap.
“Imanari’s a legend,” Musumeci said after the match. “All the leg lock stuff we’re doing is from him and his generation. So it was an honor to share the mat, or cage, with him.”
After being told that he had been awarded a $50,000 bonus, Musumeci broke into tears.
“My grandma died a month ago so I stopped competing for a few weeks and this was my first competition back after my grandma, so to be here fighting, to make the money I just made, I’m so honored,” he said.
The current Who’s Number One bantamweight champion, Musumeci is now undefeated in three matches in 2022, and hasn’t lost since he was submitted by Gabriel Sousa in September 2021.
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