Mikey Musumeci is one of the greatest grapplers of all time. He’s been doing Jiu-jitsu since he was 4 years old and has beaten many of the top competitors. It’s always interesting and inspiring to hear how these elite athletes got to the top of the food chain.
Luckily, Mikey Musumeci was on the Joe Rogan Experience and we learned a lot of cool things about him. In fact, some things were so incredible that even Joe Rogan couldn’t believe it. So what are some of the things that make Mikey unique?
He Trains With Hobbyist
This was shocking. When you picture elite black belts you picture them training all day long with other elite athletes. But in the case of Mikey, he just doesn’t do this. In fact, he trains out of his garage in Las Vegas and prefers to have Hobbyist as training partners. He says that the mentality of a hobbyist is very different than that of a full time competitor. And he prefers that type of environment.
But how can you be so good if you aren’t training with elite partners? Mikey says he goes into each training session knowing what he wants to drill. He treats it like a big math equation. So he teaches his partners how to beat him, and then figures out the moves from there.
His Diet Consists of Pizza and Pasta
Most elite athletes that compete in high intensity sports have their diet to a science. Many will weigh their food and have specific times of day they can eat certain things. Mike says he’s tried every single diet n the planet, and the one that works for him is…. pasta and pizza!
So how do you compete at such a high level, look ripped and eat pizza and pasta? Mike says he only eats once a day and rewards himself to this meal, which he also adds a pint of acai. His meal is about 7,000 calories. Again, if you are working out 12 hours a day and if you are as young as Mikey, then this diet clearly works. But what happens as you get older? I’m sure will find out as many other athletes may try this.
He Almost Became a Lawyer
Mike’s sister is a lawyer. In fact, she practices law full time and after work she practices jiu-jitsu. Mike says he went to school and was about to become a lawyer, but decided to drop out to follow his dream of competing in brazilian jiu-jitsu.
He still says he may go back to law school if this BJJ thing doesn’t work out. We hope he doesn’t!
He Taught Himself Portuguese
Here at Jiu-jitsu Central, we actually thought Mike was Brazilian because of his Portuguese. Well it turns out he’s Italian and taught himself fluent Portuguese using… Google translate. He said since he was around so many Brazilians growing up, he depended on the app to help him communicate and eventually, he started recognizing the same words.
What’s more unbelievable, is that he’s completely fluent and can read and write in Portuguese. Just from using Google translate.
Winning Doesn’t Fulfill Him
Mikey says after winning one of his dream tournaments as a black belt… he wasn’t happy. What makes him happy is teaching and traveling during his seminars. Eventually, he would like to open up a gym and continue teaching others. That’s what really makes him happy.
