“A couple of little pops in there” - Kade Ruotolo on catching Matheus Gabriel with a heel hook

At ONE on Prime Video 5, ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo successfully defended his belt against the ultra-tough Matheus Gabriel. Former IBJJF Gi and No Gi world champion Gabriel has built a reputation for being near-impossible to submit, only getting tapped once in competition.

His defensive acumen and craftiness against Kade Ruotolo, who never took his foot off the gas while attacking with submissions throughout the fight. One such submission attempt was a frightening heel hook submission that looked like it could have ended the bout.

In his post-fight press interview, Ruotolo was asked about the heel hook in question. The 19-year-old world champion responded with:

"Yeah. For sure, I was honestly getting a bit frustrated, because I was almost expecting something like that. Where his [Gabriel's] guard was going to be very flexible, very strong, and he wasn't going to be doing a whole lot of risky things, so I just wanted to try and give a show and try my best to throw some crazy out there. I've done that pass a couple of times. And he did a great push offense. So I kind of ended up right where his legs were. And I was like, I'll just take his leg instead, and it was right there. I think that was my tightest submission of the entire match. As I said, I've heard a couple of little pops in there. And he definitely had a little grimace in his face. So it was definitely pretty tight."

Despite not finishing the ultra-tight heel hook, Kade Ruotolo came away with a dominant unanimous decision win for having the most number of legitimate submission attempts.

Watch Ruotolo's post-fight media scrum here:

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Kade Ruotolo's brother, Tye Ruotolo, also won big at ONE on Prime Video 5

Kade Ruotolo's twin brother, Tye Ruotolo, also won in tremendous fashion at ONE on Prime Video 5. The young blackbelt prodigy absolutely dominated former ONE featherweight world champion Marat 'Cobra' Gafurov en route to a performance bonus-worthy arm-bar/wrist lock submission win.

Like his brother Kade, Tye was like a hurricane in his rapid submission attempts against Gafurov. He kept chaining his attacks against the former ONE featherweight world champion at blinding speed. Gafurov was left putting out fire after fire as he was defending one attack after another.

Eventually, Tye attempted one of his crazy transitions and marvelously into an armbar attempt from across Gafurov's back. He then transitioned the armbar into a triangle choke and then finished the submission by hyper-extending Gafurov's trapped arm while cranking an excruciating wristlock.

The Dagestani former world champion had no choice but to tap. The win earned Tye a $50,000 bonus.

Watch the finish here: