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Dante Leon reflected on his first grappling match against Tye Ruotolo ahead of their rubber match. On Friday, May 2, Leon will challenge Ruotolo for his welterweight submission grappling world title in the ONE Fight Night 31 co-main event.
The world-class grapplers have split a two-match series outside of ONE Championship, starting with Leon winning the first meeting by decision at Grapplefest 8 in 2020.
While speaking to ONE, Dante Leon had this to say about defeating Ruotolo:
"He was young at the time. I figured I'd be able to deal with him as far as having a lot more physical strength than him, a lot more experience. Even though he's younger, he was younger than me as far as calendar years, but he had a lot of experience. I don't think he was that much less experienced than me, but I do felt like I had an experience advantage against him. I just kept pressure on him and was able to wear him down and beat him."
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ONE Fight Night 31 goes down inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Friday's event can be seen live and for free by North American and Canadian viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.
Tye Ruotolo talks about submitting Dante Leon in their second meeting
The second time that Tye Ruotolo and Dante Leon competed in a submission grappling match was at a Who's Number One event in 2021. Ruotolo avenged his defeat by submitting Leon with a guillotine.
During an interview with ONE, Ruotolo had this to say about defeating Leon in their rematch:
"I remember, back at the Who's Number One championship, that was a really big competition. And I remember after I beat him, I could tell he was pretty pi**ed about it. I could tell he's been wanting to get this one back for a long time."
Tye Ruotolo has become a significant superstar in ONE Championship's submission grappling landscape. Ruotolo's last promotional appearance was a unanimous decision win against Jozef Chen in July 2024, pushing his ONE record to 7-0.
As for Dante Leon, the Canadian grappler holds a 2-0 promotional record after defeating Bruno Pucci (armbar) and Tommy Langaker (unanimous decision).
