Tye Ruotolo out for revenge against two rivals who beat him before: “It definitely hurts”

Tye Ruotolo may be undefeated in ONE Championship, but the 20-year-old BJJ prodigy is still chomping at the bit to run it back with the man who bested him at the 2019 ADCC world championships, Kennedy Maciel.

Ruotolo returns to the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, this Friday night, November 3, with the opportunity to make history by becoming the promotion’s first-ever ONE welterweight submission grappling world champion.

Standing in his way of that task will be dangerous Dagestani-wrestling standout and two-time UWW submission grappling world champion Magomed Abdulkadirov.

Though his focus is on the task at hand, Tye Ruotolo can’t help but dream about the day that he’ll get an opportunity to right one of the wrongs from his past.

Speaking to ONE Championship, the Atos representative shared:

“Yeah, it was close, that one. It definitely hurts – that one in the Kennedy Maciel, I got submitted by him as a blue. [Tye lost to Kennedy Maciel at the 2019 ADCC World Championships] Those, those are the two that my brother, he reminds me every day pretty much,” Ruotolo said during an interview with ONE Championship.

Maciel, son of two-time ADCC champion Rubens 'Cobrinha' Charles, won a silver medal at the 2019 ADCC tournament when he faced Tye Ruotolo. He is also a 2020 IBJJf Pan No-Gi champion.

Perhaps we could see the two submission specialists meet inside the Circle one day in a rematch that should be one for the ages.

But for now, Tye Ruotolo is locked onto his ONE world title opportunity inside Bangkok’s iconic venue. Will the Costa Rica-based superstar claim 26 pounds of gold inside the Mecca of Muay Thai, or will the smothering Dagestani-style wrestling be too much for Ruotolo to overcome?

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 16: Haggerty vs. Andrade on Prime Video live in U.S. primetime this Friday, November 3.