'Dagestani Mikey' Abandons Leg Locks For Wrestling — UFC BJJ 8 Matches Him Against A Man Who Lost 13-0 At Pans

Mikey Musumeci — the man who built an entire career on attacking feet — wants you to know that feet are so 2025.

The UFC BJJ bantamweight champion has spent the last few months rebranding himself as "Dagestani Mikey," growing a chin-strap beard, training with UFC bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov, and announcing to anyone within earshot that leg locks are dead to him. "Get rid of these butt scooters," he declared earlier this year. "They're a disgrace to this sport. Wrestling and passing is where it is."

This is the same Mikey Musumeci who won five IBJJF World Championships. The same Mikey who became the pound-for-pound king of lower body destruction. The same Mikey who, at UFC BJJ 5 in February, promised he'd stay on top and wrestle — then spent the first round and a half actually doing it before Shay Montague's leg presented itself like a buffet at a Brazilian steakhouse and he finished with a straight ankle lock anyway.

Old habits die hard when your old habits are the best leg locks on the planet.

But credit where it's due. Musumeci didn't just grow a beard and call it a day. He spent real time at the UFC Performance Institute rolling with Nurmagomedov and came away genuinely shaken by what he experienced. "Out of all the MMA jiu-jitsu people I've trained with, he could beat a lot of the jiu-jitsu people I compete with," Musumeci said. Coming from a guy who has tapped most of the jiu-jitsu people he competes with, that's not nothing.

The Dagestan pilgrimage is reportedly still on the calendar. Musumeci says he plans to travel there later this year to train. Picture it: the 125-pound leg lock savant from New Jersey, wandering the mountains of the North Caucasus, looking for takedown wisdom. It's either the most committed stylistic reinvention in grappling history or the greatest bit since he started calling himself Darth Rigatoni.

Meanwhile, About That Next Opponent

While Musumeci is out here training with world-class wrestlers and calling out UFC lightweights, the promotion has booked him against Kevin Dantzler at UFC BJJ 8 on May 21.

Who is Kevin Dantzler? That's genuinely not a rhetorical question. Most of the grappling community is asking it too.

Here's what we know: Dantzler is a black belt who went 4-4 on FloGrappling. He lost 13-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2025 Pan No-Gi Championship. Reports from the grappling community indicate that a purple belt submitted him two weeks before the UFC BJJ 8 announcement. He lost his Finishers bantamweight title to Andrew DeGraff by submission.

This is a title defense. For a championship belt. On the biggest grappling platform in the world.

The community reaction has been roughly what you'd expect. Junny Ocasio, Joao Miyao, and Gabi Garcia all weighed in critically. The comparison circulating online — a "hydrogen bomb versus a coughing baby" — is mean, sure, but it's also not inaccurate based on the available evidence.

The most damning part isn't even Dantzler's record. It's that UFC BJJ has Joao Miyao under contract at the same weight class. Miyao is a multiple-time world champion who would represent an actual test. Both he and Musumeci agreed to the fight. But negotiations collapsed when Claudia Gadelha allegedly disclosed Miyao's contract demands directly to Musumeci, poisoning the negotiation. Miyao wanted more money to cancel seminars and dedicate two months to camp. Musumeci's response: "If he doesn't want to have a match with me, okay, just say that. But if you say you're willing to have a match with me... and then you won't accept it because you want too much money..."

So instead of Miyao — a generational talent at 135 — we get Dantzler. A guy whose most notable recent achievement is losing by double digits at a tournament one tier below the one Musumeci dominates.

The Seven-Figure Contradiction

Musumeci re-signed with UFC BJJ late last year after his original contract expired. He's talked openly about being "on the path" to seven figures annually, crediting Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones for pushing athlete pay forward in grappling.

The man reportedly commands 1.2 million Instagram followers and draws 30,000 concurrent viewers on UFC BJJ broadcasts. His contract is structured around appearance fees, submission bonuses, and content deals. He's the highest-paid pure grappler in the promotion's history.

And they're paying him seven figures a year to submit guys who lost 13-0 at Pans.

This is the central tension of UFC BJJ right now: the promotion has a legitimate superstar, a bonafide draw, a guy who moves the needle for competitive grappling — and they cannot or will not find him worthy opponents. Three events in, they publicly admitted they couldn't find anyone for him. Eight events in, the situation hasn't improved. It's gotten worse.

The Tsarukyan Escape Hatch

Musumeci knows this. That's why he's been calling out Arman Tsarukyan.

After defending his title at UFC BJJ 5, Musumeci immediately targeted the UFC's number-two ranked lightweight. His reasoning: Tsarukyan had been calling out actor Tom Hardy — then a purple belt hobbyist — for a grappling match. "He called out a hobbyist purple belt for a grappling match," Musumeci said. "How about he competes against a jiu-jitsu person?"

Tsarukyan apparently agreed. Gadelha confirmed she spoke with him and he said yes. Dana White, when asked if he'd allow it, delivered perhaps the most Dana White response possible: "I guess. I don't know."

When the reporter clarified that the matchup was Gadelha's initiative, White landed on: "Well, I believe if Claudia wants it done, she'll get it done."

The fight would involve a 30-pound weight difference — Musumeci walks around at roughly 125 while Tsarukyan campaigns at 155 — making this less a superfight and more a science experiment. But it's the only matchup on the UFC BJJ horizon that would actually generate real competitive interest for Musumeci. Gadelha has indicated it could happen in August, pending Tsarukyan's UFC schedule.

So here's where we are: the greatest leg locker of his generation has abandoned leg locks, is training to become a Dagestani wrestler, has a seven-figure contract, and his next opponent is a guy who a purple belt tapped two weeks ago. After that, maybe he fights a UFC lightweight who outweighs him by 30 pounds.

The matchmaking roadmap goes from showcase layup to physics-defying superfight with absolutely nothing in between.

Dagestani Mikey might not need the wrestling after all. At this rate, he just needs someone worth wrestling.

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This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

Sources

• The Birth of 'Dagestani Mikey': Musumeci Announces Radical Style Shift
• UFC BJJ 8: Musumeci vs Dantzler Fight Card
• UFC BJJ Called Out For Bad Matchmaking for Musumeci
• UFC BJJ Allegedly Disclosed Miyao's Contract Demands to Musumeci
• Dana White Gives Blessing for Musumeci vs Tsarukyan
• 'Dagestani Mikey' Musumeci Gets Foot Lock at UFC BJJ 5
• Mikey Musumeci Re-Signed with UFC BJJ
• Three Events In, UFC BJJ Admits They Can't Find a Worthy Opponent for Musumeci
• UFC BJJ 8: Musumeci To Defend Title Against Dantzler