It sounds like 2023 was very good to Mikey Musumeci. He competed four times in ONE Championship and appeared on Season 2 of The Apprentice.
The flyweight submission grappling champion took to Instagram to boast about the amount of money he raised this year. Him and Rodtang Jitmuangnon are flicking away imaginary bank notes while Musumeci boasts that they have,
“Had a seven figure year.”
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Lucrative year
The two men are in Thailand but we assume Musumeci is talking in dollars. Earning a million baht would not be quite as impressive an achievement.
Rodtang was last seen losing to Superlek at ONE Friday Fights 34. He earned 10mn baht ($290,000 USD) for that three round fight and was even photographed with the stack of bank notes afterwards.
That was Rodtang.s third fight of the year and, assuming his purse increases incrementally after every win, he wouldn’t quite have made $1mn USD from fighting.
Rodtang might have other sponsorship deals which pushed him over the line but he has still had a very lucrative year by Thai standards.
Reality show
Musumeci competed four times for ONE Championship and, if his purse is anywhere close to the level of Rodtang’s could have earned $1mn USD just from submission grappling bouts. But he also appeared on Season 2 of The Apprentice which is set to be screened on Netflix any day now.
When you take into consideration the cash Musumeci might have made from appearing on a reality TV show it is easy to see how he might have made $1mn USD in 2023.
Rodtang should be in for the biggest pay day of his career at ONE 165. He faces Takeru in the main event at the Ariake Arena on January 28th.
Musumeci could be set to make his MMA debut next year. He has been training with various fighters in Thailand as he prepares to make the transition from submission grappling to MMA.
The money should keep coming in for both men in 2024. But they clearly want people to know that, from a financial perspective, this has been a very good year.
