"Definitely not taking him lightly" - Kade Ruotolo breaks down Ahmed Mujtaba ahead of their showdown at ONE 169

ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo dissected what makes Ahmed Mujtaba a dangerous opponent at ONE 169: Malykhin vs. 'Reug Reug' on Friday, Nov. 8, inside the Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Ruotolo shared his scouting report in a sit-down interview with veteran combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani, saying:

"I know he's got a solid straight right down the middle and a decent uppercut. He's knocked a couple people out on the ONE platform. I'm definitely not taking him lightly. I think he's a brown belt on the ground, so you know he's got some weariness when it comes up to jiu-jitsu. But I think his strengths are going to lie on keeping it on the feet and trying to knock me out. I think that's going to be his best bet."

Watch the entire interview below:

Ruotolo is coming off a near-flawless MMA debut this past June at ONE 167, where he made Blake Cooper tap out via rear-naked choke midway through the first round.

However, Mujtaba's stellar striking abilities and well-rounded ground game poses a grave threat to the 21-year-old's hopes of staying undefeated in MMA.

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Kade Ruotolo planning to trade strikes with Ahmed Mujtaba

Kade Ruotolo wants to see how his striking stacks up against the hard-hitting Ahmed Mujtaba, which is why he hopes the Pakistani will indulge him in a prolonged stand-up battle.

Ruotolo said as much in an interview with MMA Junkie:

"I really wanted to just gain that experience in there and understand what it's like to block kicks, block punches... So much different than the jiu-jitsu matches, obviously. So I wanted to just gain that experience in there and the same thing with this match."

Watch the interview:

ONE 169 will air live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.