"My goal is to get the submission" - Kade Ruotolo disappointed despite getting victory at ONE 157

Kade Ruotolo won his debut match in ONE Championship, but he’s not fully satisfied with how he got it.

At ONE 157, Ruotolo defeated Shinya Aoki in a submission grappling bout via unanimous decision. It was the first victory awarded by the judges after ONE Championship adopted a new ruleset for the sport.

During the post-fight interview, the 19-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu prodigy shared what he felt about his performance.

Kade Ruotolo said:

“To be honest, I’m still not 100 percent content with my performance. Every time I go into a match, my goal is to get the submission. Under the last ruleset, it would have been a draw, right? So you know, looking forward, that’s definitely what I’ll be pushing for even more.”

Previously, submission grappling matches were done in one 15-minute round with no breaks. If neither fighter got a submission at the end of the round, then the match would be declared a draw.

Prior to ONE 157, it was changed to single 10-minute rounds, where a fighter aims for a submission, but may also get a win after time runs by getting more submission attempts during the match.

Ruotolo gave credit to his opponent for being excellent defensively to prevent him from getting the finish.

“Shinya did an amazing job of keeping really good wrist control, and he really didn’t make any big mistakes, so I really just kept trying to push the pace,” he said.

Catch the full post-fight interview below:

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Kade Ruotolo surprised at Shinya Aoki’s strength

As much as Kade Ruotolo looked for the submission, he ultimately couldn’t get it but not for the lack of trying.

Ruotolo said that he was able to execute what he visualised he would do in the match for the most part, but he just couldn’t get the finish. The American teenager praised Aoki for his defense, and slammed critics who thought he was taking it easy on Ruotolo.

Kade Ruotolo said:

“I don’t think it’s about him not really forcing the issue, it’s more just that he couldn’t. I was cutting a lot of different angles, staying on his head and I just felt technically, I may be a couple steps ahead. One thing that for sure surprised me was his isometric strength on the back. Like, when I was on his back, he had very strong wrist control and it felt like it took forever to finally free my wrist. The second I did, I started looking for the choke and he grabbed my wrist again.”