Caio Terra Puts Up $10,000 For Mikey Musumeci Challenge Match
It seems that Caio Terra has stumbled upon a formula from his last public beef with Gordon Ryan: offer up a bunch of money for a challenge match. This time, it isn’t on his own behalf, but on behalf of his student, Mikey Musumeci.
Like Terra, Musumeci is a small competitor, competing last in the Light-feather division at the IBJJF European Championships 2020 where he took gold. His medal wasn’t what made headlines, however. It was his performance in the absolute division.
Although he did not make it to the podium, he performed extraordinarily well given the size difference. He managed to win matches against opponents far heavier than him, even narrowly beating an Ultra-Heavyweight. He lost in the Quarter-finals to Muhamed Aly, but even there he had a solid showing, scoring two points and losing by only a single advantage.
So now Caio Terra is out there plugging for his student, claiming that he can beat anyone. And he’s putting his money where his mouth is, which only adds to the excitement of a potential David and Goliath match.
Obviously everyone likes to see the small guy beat some muscle-bound monster with his superior technique. But when the big guy is also a professional grappler and elite athlete, it isn’t so easy for the small guy to outclass him. Will we get our storybook ending?
A Challenger Steps Forth
Actually, we might. There have been a few names tossed around, but easily the most fun match up would be Nick Rodriguez, the man who was recently announced as the latest entrant for The Polaris Absolute Grand Prix and who has now accepted the challenge online. Being a former wrestler and relatively new to Jiu-Jitsu, Rodriguez might actually have a few holes for Musumeci to exploit.
Rodriguez burst onto the Jiu-jitsu competitive scene at ADCC 2019, where he surprised everyone with his explosiveness, power, and technique where it counted. However, it can be argued that his skillset is best suited to ADCC rules, not IBJJF. Because of this, it is very hard to predict the match one way or the other. If this goes anywhere, it will make for a very exciting match.
