Claudia Gadelha On Finding Opponents For Musumeci
Another UFC BJJ event took place last week, and once again, we saw Mikey Musumeci win with ease. During the post-event press conference, Claudia Gadelha was asked why Mikey isn’t facing more well-known top athletes.
Gadelha admitted that it has been difficult trying to match him up with high-level opponents.
“We try to pair him against the best. It’s very hard because he is probably the best pound-for-pound Jiu-Jitsu athlete in the world, and it’s very hard to find him good matches.” – Claudia Gadelha.
The Real Reasons
Undoubtedly, it’s hard to find worthy opponents for Musumeci, but it isn’t just because he’s one of the best in the world. Three other factors are affecting why Mikey isn’t facing top No-Gi athletes.
- Drug Testing
- Exclusive Contracts
- They’re Protecting Mikey
It is no secret that a large portion of the world’s top Jiu-Jitsu athletes are on several types of performance-enhancing drugs. For this reason, many top athletes aren’t signing with the UFC BJJ due to their extensive drug testing.
Many athletes also do not want to be locked into one of the UFC BJJ’s exclusive contracts. They want the freedom to compete with any organization they want to gives them more opportunities to make money.
We also have to be honest with what we’ve been seeing so far with the UFC BJJ. They are not putting the best possible opponents against Mikey. His first title match was against an opponent who predominantly does Gi Jiu-Jitsu and the only thing memorable about his recent match was Musumeci doing a goofy one-legged hop to bait his opponent.
Bobby is martial artist for almost 20 years with a BJJ black belt under Professor Sergio Miranda. He is also a karate black and former combat sports athlete, who loves all things grappling.