“He is unorthodox” - Dante Leon says it was hard finding training partners to emulate Tye Ruotolo’s unique style

Preparing for Tye Ruotolo isn’t as simple as bringing in a tall, rangy grappler and running through reps. According to Dante Leon, who challenges for Ruotolo’s welterweight submission grappling world title at ONE Fight Night 31, finding someone who can truly mimic the champ’s style has been one of the biggest challenges in camp.

He spoke about this in an exclusive interview with ONE Championship ahead of fight night:

"And that's another thing about him. He is unorthodox. So we do have quite a few people that I train with that have some similarities to him. But if you're looking for a one-stop shop as somebody who can just emulate Tye Ruotolo, it's kinda tough to just get that one person."

Ruotolo’s game doesn’t follow the usual patterns, making it hard to replicate and even harder to prepare for.

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“They go 100 percent with everything” - Dante Leon sums up why the Ruotolo twins are on top of the grappling pedestal

The success of Tye Ruotolo and his twin brother Kade hasn’t come from some magic trick. According to Dante Leon, what separates the Ruotolos is their full-throttle approach to everything, especially the things most people wouldn’t dare try.

"You have to remember one thing about Tye and Kade, too, is when they do something, they go 100 percent," he said. "Even if it's a move that you look at on paper, it probably shouldn't work, or you see them do it and you're like, ‘How did they make that work?’ It's because they go 100 percent with everything they do."

That willingness to commit fully, even to high-risk sequences, is what’s helped them dominate the scene. But Dante Leon has faced Tye twice before, so he has the edge of familiarity as he heads into his title match at ONE Fight Night 31.

ONE Fight Night 31 takes place at 9 PM EDT on May 2. Stream it live on Prime Video with an active subscription.