“His resilience was impressive” – Kade Ruotolo says Tommy Langaker’s incredible grit stood out in ONE 165 rematch

Kade Ruotolo believes Tommy Langaker made life far more difficult in their rematch that went down at ONE 165 inside the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan.

The two Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts gave their all in their single-round world title affair this past Sunday, January 28, inside the Japanese capital. But despite the Norwegian's best efforts, he still could not find a route to even the scores against Ruotolo’s explosive submission-hunting game.

Langaker had to fend off a couple of close D’Arce chokes that came his way like a freight train. Though he managed to find a way to stop the Atos representative from his tracks, it was never enough to get him across the finish line with a victory.

Speaking to ringside announcer Mitch Chilson after the win, Kade Ruotolo had nothing but praise for the European grappling wizard, who most recently captured the IBJJF no-gi world title in December last year.

The ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion said:

“Full respect to Tommy. He’s an amazing jiu-jitsu competitor. Not a whole lot surprised me as far as attacks go, but his resilience this time around was really impressive. Not an easy guy to put away by any means.”

With the decision victory at ONE 165, Ruotolo improved his overall slate under the ONE banner to 5-0, with four successful world title outings.

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What could be next for Kade Ruotolo?

Already an ADCC world champion and the reigning lightweight submission grappling king at ONE Championship, Kade Ruotolo is chomping at the bit to give the all-encompassing discipline a try next.

While he doesn’t have any particular opponents in mind for his inevitable debut, the 21-year-old admits he would like the idea of a rematch against Shinya Aoki in MMA after both of them left the Ariake Arena with a pair of victories.

Like Kade Ruotolo, ‘Tobikan Judan’ capped off his return in style, defeating John Lineker via submission on the global pay-per-view card.

After a blockbuster card in Tokyo, Japan, The Home of Martial Arts returns to the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium next for ONE Fight Night 19, headlined by a world title clash between Jonathan Haggerty and Felipe Lobo.

North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription can catch all the action live in U.S. primetime on February 16.