It’s been a rough 48 hours for jiu-jitsu ace Mikey Musumeci.
Just a few days ago, Musumeci — a five-time IBJJF world champion and One Flyweight grappling champion — was scheduled to move up in weight and grapple Lightweight grappling champion, Kade Ruotolo, in a BJJ super fight. The match up was supposed to take place last night (Fri., Sept. 6, 2024) at One Championship 168 in Denver, Colorado, but a Ruotolo injury suffered in the Craig Jones Invitational disrupted those plans.
Instead, Musumeci agreed to face Bebeto Oliveira and defend his Flyweight crown. He agreed to the 35-pound change in weight class with just five days to lose weight. Predictably, he didn’t make it down to 135-pounds and was subsequently stripped of his belt.
To make matters worse, Musumeci suffered an injury during the failed weight cut, cancelling the bout entirely. Now, Musumeci has revealed that the attempt sent him to the hospital with a “tear in his lung” called pneumomediastinum. He attributes the injury to doing breathing techniques while cutting weight.
“I just want to thank everyone for the messages and support,” Musumeci wrote on Instagram. “I have been in the hospital since early this morning. I have pneumomediastinum, which means I had a tear in my lung Wednesday I believe when I was cutting weight doing rickson diaphragm breathing (didn’t know this was possible) and air got into my chest and then into my neck. This is a life threatening condition, and if I would have competed, I could have died the doctor told me. So first I was upset, now I’m full of gratitude to be alive and that I didn’t keep pushing. God protected me”
It’s good that Musumeci is looking at the positive side of things, but the whole situation is ridiculous. It was completely unfair to ask Musumeci to drop that much weight on such short-notice in the first place, let alone penalize him when the obvious happened and he didn’t hit 135 pounds. One of the selling points of One Championship is theoretically their improved weight cutting system, which is based on hydration testing and is supposed to stop severe dehydration … but how else is an athlete supposed to lose 35 pounds in five days?!?
Here’s hoping Musumeci makes a fully recover and is able to get back on the mats sooner than later.