‘Buchecha’ in awe of Ruotolo twins’ consistency from green belts to black belts

Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Marcus ‘Buchecha’ Almeida saw the Ruotolo twins, Kade and Tye, start in the sport. He is happy and impressed by how far they have come.

Speaking to ONE Championship in an interview, the American Top Team affiliate and ONE heavyweight fighter shared that he has followed the Ruotolo twins since they were kids doing BJJ. He is not at all surprised that they are enjoying the kind of success they are having.

‘Buchecha’, in particular, cited the consistency that Kade and Tye are showing in their work as playing a major role. He said:

“The good things they used to do as kids as green belts, they’re still doing this as black belts. It’s something we don’t see really often.”

The Ruotolo twins had a lot of success in the BJJ scene prior to joining ONE Championship in 2021, winning top prizes in various high-profile international competitions while representing the United States.

In ONE, such a boom has followed.

Between them, the 20-year-olds have been undefeated in six submission grappling matches to date, while winning hefty performance bonuses from ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong along the way.

Kade Ruotolo is currently the ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion and is set to make his second defense on June 9 at ONE Fight Night 11 on Prime Video in Bangkok against Norwegian challenger Tommy Langaker.

Tye Ruotolo, for his part, was last in action on May 5 at ONE Fight Night 10 on Prime Video, which was the promotion’s first-ever live event on-ground in the United States. He beat ONE middleweight world champion Reinier de Ridder by unanimous decision in their submission grappling superfight.

Meanwhile, ‘Buchecha’ is having equal success since joining ONE in 2020. He has had four fights to date, which he all won by finishes inside the opening round.

The impressive run of 'Buchecha' has positioned himself for a shot at the world title that will be disputed in a unification fight between reigning champion Arjan Bhullar and interim world title holder Anatoly Malykhin next month.