UFC BJJ bantamweight champion Mikey Musumeci has built his career around mangling legs, collecting heel hooks, and turning the lower half of the human body into a complex puzzle that only he knows how to solve.
Unfortunately, this is not allowed if “Darth Rigatoni” moves up to featherweight to face the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contender Bryce Mitchell in UFC BJJ 11 Main Event later tonight (Thursday, September 24, 2026) at Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
That’s because Mitchell previously called leg locks, pulling the guard, and butt-kicking gay, arguing that those combat tactics would be useless in an actual self-defense situation. “Thug Nasty” also made it clear that he does not enjoy touching another man’s feet.
Mitchell is finally pissed off leading to him challenging Musumecclaiming to be able to defeat the award-winning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion by his own rules. Musumeci agreed, but also gamely agreed to remove exact shots from their match, which Mitchell hates.
Because of this, the two men have a gentlemen’s agreement: no leg locks and no intentional pulling defense. However, if Musumec is taken down or goes down during a scramble, he is allowed to use his guard.
To prepare for Mitchell’s preferred version of “heterosexual” jiu-jitsu, Musumeci used some rather unusual—and perhaps alarming—training methods.
“Leglocks are gay – guard pulls; if you jump with your butt, that’s gay,” Musumeci joked at UFC BJJ 11 media day. “But if you happen to be in the bottom, you have to go. Unfortunately, you just have to go.
“I had a good camp for that,” continued Musumeci. “The Tackett brothers used to hit me with a dog collar every day when I got to the bottom. They put a collar on me and when I fell, they pushed a button. So whenever I see the floor, I see myself getting caught, and psychologically it does something to your brain.”
As if electrocuting one of the best grapplers on the planet wasn’t strange enough, Musumeci also went through a little mental cleansing every time his back touched the mat.
“The dog collar was part of my camp, as was throwing holy water when I hit the bottom to drive the devil out of me,” Musumeci said. “So, we did some interesting methods in this camp and we’ve come to a great place. I feel really prepared from a mental and psychological point of view.”
Musumeci is undefeated in the UFC BJJ Bowl (4-0), submitting all four of his opponents with three heel hooks and a single leg lock. His bantamweight championship is not on the line as tonight’s crossover spectacle takes place one division higher.
At the same time, Mitchell is certainly no slouch on the ground. The UFC veteran has amassed 10 submissions in his 19 professional mixed martial arts victories and recently submitted Santiago Luna with arm-triangle choke (watch the highlights). However, so was he performed by a heel hook during his appearance Eddie Bravo Invitational (EBI) 25 last year – Another reason why it might be beneficial to remove the leg locks tonight.
Musumeci must now defeat Mitchell without his most dangerous weapons, voluntarily accepting the bottom position, and with the constant psychological threat of an imaginary dog collar wrapped around his neck.
Totally standard grappling stuff.
Click for full UFC BJJ 11 results, coverage and highlights HERE.
