Despite the self-imposed no-butt-jumping rules and whatever leg locks he’s known for, Musumeci’s UFC BJJ bantamweight champion still dominated. Mitchell is a good grappler for MMA, but Musumeci is the best in the world at jiu-jitsu, and that huge skill gap was obvious.
Instead of ending the submission, Musumec repeatedly used leg locks to sweep and gain top position. In the first round, Musumec was swept, baited and threatened with a deep anaconda choke. In the second, he got a sweep and a deep omoplata attempt.
In the final round, Mitchell tried to dirty it by smashing his head and forearms into his face and even tried to knock him down. That didn’t help him much though, as Musumeci ended up using a slick arm drag to get up, pass and finally take back. The much larger Mitchell was able to simply hang on and survive each round with several deep submission attempts, including an armbar, until the final bell.
They didn’t publish the score, but it might as well have been three 10-8 as Mitchell had no fouls and was just trying to stall and survive every round, being completely locked up.
“I wasn’t able to execute the aggressive strategy that I wanted to,” Mitchell said. “He used (the leg lock) to sweep and could have really hurt one of my legs if he wanted to.”
Mitchell admitted he was in “survival mode” for most of the contest and praised the “riding and sticky” jiu-jitsu star.
After the win, Musumeci reiterated his plans to make the transition to MMA, saying it’s more fun to wrestle rougher and “rougher” UFC fighters like Mitchell than clean fighters.
Co-main event there was a lot of controversy in the super fight. letter cj Nick Rodriguez seemingly overpowered the UFC BJJ champion Mason Fowler in two out of three rounds, but the judges somehow managed to let him retain the belt.
UFC BJJ 11 Full Results
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