Osamah Almarwai Discusses His Upcoming Title Bout Against Mikey Musumeci

The ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Championship will be on the line when two of the best grapplers in the world today step into action at ONE Fight Night 10: Johnson vs. Moraes III on Friday, May 5. 

Osamah Almarwai will make his ONE Championship debut at the organization’s first-ever U.S. event, when he challenges reigning divisional king Mikey Musumeci inside Denver’s 1stBank Center.

As he makes his final preparations to step inside the Circle for the first time, the Yemeni star took time out to thank his team at Atos Jiu-Jitsu Academy, giving particular praise to young BJJ phenoms Kade and Tye Ruotolo.

“Every single day, they help me. They’re very outgoing. They’re super nice kids. I love training with them,” Almarwai told ONE.

The flyweight challenger has watched the twin brothers grow and develop since they first walked through the doors of Atos, and he has been in awe of their talent from day one.

Both Kade and Tye have risen to the highest heights in the grappling world, and Almarwai is pleased to have seen them go from strength to strength.

“They helped me so much. Even when they were blue belts. I remember when they joined Atos. They were blue belts. I was like, ‘Man, these kids are good.’ They made me feel bad because I was a brown belt at the time. And man, they were very good,” he said.

“And then I remember Tye was doing so well in the ADCC. I don’t feel bad anymore because he beat some top-level black belts. These kids are good.”

“Osa” has never had an ego and when it comes to learning from the 20-year-old superstars. In spite of the age difference, he has taken tips and pointers from both as they worked hard to change the submission grappling world with their exciting and innovative styles.

“Yeah, they’ve been doing it since they were, I think, 3 years old. The knowledge they have in jiu-jitsu is like, you ask them about any position, they’ll just give you so much knowledge. It’s amazing. It’s amazing to be around them because they help everyone,” Almarwai said.

The man behind Atos is legendary BJJ star Andre Galvao, who has successfully built it into the World-Champion-producing gym it is today.

With Galvao at the helm, Almarwai knew he just needed to follow the blueprint toward greatness, and he credits his coach’s dedication to his students for the reason behind his success.

“It’s super hard to produce one Black Belt World Champion. But Galvao was able to make so many Black Belt World Champions. So I know that Galvao had the recipe to make World Champions. All I had to do was just show up and train,” said Almarwai.

“Galvao puts a lot of heart into this. What I notice something different about Atos is that Galvao is there every single day, which I think that’s the reason for Atos’ success. He is there every single day running two competition classes, one at 7 a.m. and the other one at 10:45.”

“Osa’s” hard work and passion has already paid off somewhat, as he has an IBJJF No-Gi World Championship to his name. 

But he now stands one victory away from the ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Title, and his epic battle with Musumeci at ONE Fight Night 10 will have the added benefit of helping to promote him, his gym, and the sport of submission grappling around the world.

ONE Fight Night 10 airs live on Prime Video at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Friday, May 5. The event is free for all U.S. and Canadian Amazon Prime subscribers.