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The Ruotolo brothers made their ONE Championship debut at ONE 157 and entertained fans watching around the world with impressive performances in their respective matches.
Even ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong took notice, congratulating the brothers on social media for their successful debuts.
“congratulations again, kade and tye! welcome to ONE.”
Kade Ruotolo was up first at the event, taking on the legendary Shinya Aoki. From the opening bell, Kade was in control. Aoki’s defense throughout was fantastic, but in the end, Kade was awarded the victory via unanimous decision after 12 minutes of spectacular offensive grappling.
Next up was Tye Ruotolo, who was scheduled to face ‘The Lion Killer’ Garry Tonon. Ruotolo wasted little time, taking Tonon down and almost immediately passed Tonon’s guard.
From there, Tye set up a D’arce choke that forced Tonon to tap just 97 seconds into the contest. The teenager picked up a $50,000 bonus for his quick work at ONE 157.
“My goal in jiu jitsu right now is to just keep being the best version of myself, and to get to the title in jiu jitsu and to the title in MMA is what my brother and I want to do as well. So we’ve got a lot of goals right now,” Tye said during a post-fight interview. “I just finished that match, so I really don’t know who I want next in jiu jitsu. Maybe an MMA debut. My brother and I are really scratching for that. I’m really down to fight anybody in the world. Big, small, I’m ready to go.”
The Ruotolo brothers look to MMA as the next logical step in their careers
After their successful debuts, Kade and Tye are looking to mixed martial arts as the next logical step in their careers:
“Garry Tonon would be fun for the fans for sure,” Tye Ruotolo said when asked about who he would want to face for his MMA debut. “He’s 6-1 in MMA. He just came off a title fight, and I don’t know if Chatri [Sityodtong] would let me debut [against] Garry Tonon. I had dinner with him the other night, I think he kind of seemed interested in the idea. That would be really cool. After my performance tonight I kind of deserve it. In jiu jitsu I proved I’m better than him, in the most humble way possible, and I think that my hands are better than his too, just being realistic. So I’d love to fight him in MMA.”
Kade shared his brother’s sentiments in his post-fight interview, stating that the twin brothers could make their MMA debuts as early as this year:
“My brother and I we’ve been training back in California mixing it up a lot more,” Kade said. Honestly for this camp I would say we almost trained a bit more MMA than jiu jitsu. We have a few more things we really want to accomplish this year. We want to get a couple more ONE submission-only events under our belt and I still have that big ADCC event in September. But as soon as possible after that towards the end of the year or maybe early next year we’ll be stepping foot in the circle with the gloves this time.”
