American submission grappler Mikey Musumeci has been pretty open about living with ADHD for a long time now and how it shapes his life and jiu-jitsu journey.
In fact, he doesn’t shy away from talking about it in interviews or even on social media when it comes up.
Mikey is one of those top guys in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, holding the ONE Championship flyweight submission grappling title and winning multiple world championships at the black belt level. However, he has always said that ADHD has been part of his life since he was young.
Back in early 2023, he did an interview with Fightlore where he explained how the condition makes things tricky sometimes.
He mentioned that focusing on several different tasks at once is really hard for him, but on the flip side, he has this thing called hyperfocus.
When something grabs his full attention, like drilling techniques or competing in jiu-jitsu, he can lock in way deeper than most people and stay with it for hours.
He talked about figuring out how to work with ADHD instead of fighting against it, and that shift has actually helped him turn it into something positive for his career.
Then there’s another side he brought up more recently in connection with ONE Championship stuff, he described feeling restless a lot and needing music blasting during training just to keep his mind steady.
He straight-up said he cannot train in silence because it’s the worst feeling; only hearing the mats squeak and people breathing around him overloads everything. Because of this, his attention span just won’t hold up without some sound to drown out the distractions.
Mikey said:
‘I cannot train in silence. That’s the worst thing in the world, when you just hear the mats and people breathing. I can’t do it. I don’t have the attention span.’
The fighter revealed that he uses music to help him zone in and perfect moves, and it keeps him from getting too scattered.
People in the ADHD community, like on Instagram pages that share stories from athletes, have reposted those quotes because they relate so much to needing background noise to function better.
He’s also touched on it in other spots, like when he responded to questions about autism or other things online.
Mikey clarified that he got tested and doesn’t have autism, but he does deal with really strong hyperfocus ADHD combined with OCD, which makes him awkward in social situations sometimes, from not socializing much when he was younger.
In clips floating around on YouTube, including one where he takes an autism test just for fun or discussion, he mentions losing track easily and having bad multitasking issues because of ADHD.
Overall, Mikey keeps it real about this part of his life. Above all, he doesn’t hide it but shares it to help others going through similar stuff feel less alone.
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