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Kade Ruotolo and his brother Tye have quickly become two of the fastest-rising stars in the submission grappling scene for their ferocity on the mats.
On Friday, October 21, Kade Ruotolo will be looking to bring the same killer mentality against Uali Kurzhev on the main card of ONE on Prime Video 3: Lineker vs. Andrade.
The victor of the classic Brazilian jiu-jitsu vs. sambo match-up will walk away from the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as the inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion.
Ruotolo has become an absolute fan-favorite in grappling circles for his devil-may-care attitude and penchant for hunting submissions. The 19-year-old phenom is never looking to win by points and is known to take a lot of calculated risks just to get the finish.
More often than not, he succeeds and sends the crowd into a frenzy. The Team Atos product displayed that feral instinct in the recently concluded 2022 ADCC World Championships.
Kade Ruotolo tapped all his opponents and became the youngest world champion in the tournament’s history. In an interview with ONE Championship, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) phenom discussed the mindset that sets him apart from his peers:
“No matter who it is, if I were to fight [MMA legend] Khabib [Nurmagomedov], my goal is to take him down and submit. You know, pass and submit. It’s always the same for everybody. And the same for my brother. For me, that’s always just been the most realistic situation.”
ONE fans were able to witness Kade Ruotolo’s crowd-pleasing ways when he took on all-time grappling great Shinya Aoki in his promotional debut at ONE 157 this past May.
While he wasn’t able to put the durable veteran away, it wasn’t for the lack of trying.
Ruotolo threatened ‘Tobikan Judan’ with multiple submissions across different dominant positions and even performed a sick off-the-circle wall back take that had fans on the edge of their seats.
He now plans to bring the same aggressive style against the dangerous Russian Sambo star Uali Kurzhev:
“Like I said, I always try to bring it to a real fight or to MMA, things like that. That’s going to be my game plan and my strategy. Not to crack on guard, I love playing guard, and I love guard. However, it doesn’t translate as much into MMA and things like that.”
‘Buchecha’ says Kade Ruotolo is in the "best phase of his career"
Even BJJ legend Marcus Almeida is in awe of what Kade Ruotolo has accomplished in such a short amount of time. The grappling savant, after all, already has an impressive career resume before turning 20.
The crazy thing is, the ever-evolving star is not even in his final form.
‘Buchecha’ believes Ruotolo will keep his momentum going and become ONE’s second submission grappling world titleholder following Mikey Musumeci.
The heavyweight BJJ ace said in an interview with ONE Championship:
“I think it will be a very interesting fight. I'm looking forward to seeing this fight. I'm sure it will be a big fight. I think Kade is in a very good moment, he's in the best phase of his career, he got his black belt recently, and he's already putting on a show. I think this will help him get into this fight well and win the belt.”
