“I Am Really Looking Forward” Shinya Aoki Expresses Excitement to Face Mikey Musumeci Before Clash at ONE Fight Night 15

Japanese martial arts legend Shinya Aoki is always ready to challenge himself, and he will take on another tough opponent in his upcoming bout.

At ONE Fight Night 15: Le vs. Freymanov on Friday, October 6, “Tobikan Judan” will face ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Champion Mikey Musumeci in an openweight submission grappling contest.

Shinya Aoki is gearing up to face the young grappling sensation, Mikey Musumeci

Aoki is pumped to test his skills against arguably the best grappler in the world today, and he hopes to produce a match fans will enjoy even if it goes the distance. “I am really looking forward to the match on October 6 against Mikey Musumeci, and I am excited to meet him in the ring in Thailand,” he told ONE in an interview. “I hope we can make a good 10 minutes for both of us, so see you then, Mikey.”

Utilizing his superior ground game, Aoki has claimed nearly 50 wins in mixed martial arts in a career that has spanned two whole decades. In the spirit of a true martial artist, the 40-year-old hasn’t been afraid to test his skills against the best in the world. At ONE: Dynasty of Heroes in May 2017, he figured in the first grappling-only match in the world’s largest martial arts organization opposite multiple-time BJJ World Champion Garry Tonon.

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When the promotion kicked off its renewed push for submission grappling, he once again donned his no-gi gear to compete against grappling phenom Kade Ruotolo at ONE 157 in May 2022.

Veteran looking forward to more grappling freedom against Musumeci

For his next match, he will compete with yet another young grappling star in Musumeci. He is looking forward to the freedom that straight grappling offers, compared to MMA grappling, and he believes there’s no better way to challenge himself than to roll with a brilliant talent like ‘Darth Rigatoni’. “Because my style of grappling is specialized for MMA, I think it’s a different style of grappling from the way other people do it today,” he said.

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“Simply put, the difference between MMA and submission grappling is that MMA has strikes, so we could get hit, so we’ll go with positions where we don’t get hit,” he continued. “But with grappling, we don’t have strikes, so we have more choices of position than we do in MMA.”