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Kade Ruotolo is one of the best submission grapplers in the world, but with all of his success at such a young age comes the need for a new challenge.
The ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion is not set to enter into unprecedented territory at ONE 167. On June 7 at the Impact Arena, he will make his MMA debut against Blake Cooper in a highly anticipated fight.
Kade Ruotolo has spoken a lot about wanting to finally make the jump over this year, and now that a date is locked in, he's excited to test what he has been working on.
His performance at ONE Fight Night 21 against Francisco Lo was remarkable, but for now, grappling must go on the backburner.
The lightweight champion spoke more about his MMA journey during an appearance on the JAXXON podcast:
"I love MMA, I've been falling in love with it more and more every single day. I've been striking since the time I was growing up, I think I've done Muay Thai off and on for about for years. I always did boxing and striking, but jiu-jitsu was always our main thing. The way we made our living. So, it's just what we dedicated most of our time to."
Kade added that, over time, he has started to turn his focus more to MMA as the debut got closer and closer:
"As of recently, over the last year or so, I've dived a lot more into MMA, the last couple of months, it has been taking up most of my time."
Watch the full podcast interview below:
Kade Ruotolo isn't short on confidence
Stepping into MMA from a submission grappling background is a big task for Kade Ruotolo.
However, confidence isn't something that he lacks at this stage in his career, and as well as putting in the hard work, he has the experience with striking to pair with his world class grappling.
How far he can go in MMA is sure to be one of the most exciting questions coming into this debut, but Kade will want to take things step by step. Working his way up the ladder just like he did in submission grappling will be his prime focus coming into ONE 167.
North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE Fight Night 21 via the free on-demand replay.
