‘Fired up’ Tye Ruotolo vows to return and win IBJJF World Championship next year

Tye Ruotolo is determined to bounce back after coming up short at the 2023 IBJJF world championship.

Ruotolo, who carries the distinction of being the youngest IBJJF world champion, made his first run as a middleweight in the tournament. Making it to the semi-final, Ruotolo fell to eventual tournament winner, Jansen Gomes Ramos. Though it was a brand new weight class for the submission superstar, Ruotolo is unwilling to accept the loss and is readying himself for a return in 2024:

“Damn, I hate losing. Can’t believe I ever thought of hanging up the gi, still got so much love for the kimono,” Rutolo said in a post on Instagram. “I grew up in the gi but I realize that doesn’t mean I can neglect it for a year and expect to sub all my opponents with 5 days of gi training since last worlds 😂 I’m coming back next year, more fired up than ever to get that gi world title.”

Check out the Instagram post below:

For now, Tye Rutolo can take solace in the fact that he is still undefeated under the ONE Championship banner. Making his promotional debut alongside his brother Kade Rutolo, he scored a win over one-time ONE featherweight world title challenger Garry Tonon, submitting ‘The Lion Killer’ in an incredible 82 seconds.

He followed that up with a submission finish over former ONE featherweight world champion Marat Gafurov at ONE on Prime Video 5 to close out his 2023.

Tye Ruotolo wasn’t done picking off world champions. In May, he returned to the circle at ONE Fight Night 10 in Denver, Colorado for a submission super-fight with reigning ONE middleweight world champion Reinier de Ridder. After 10 minutes of tightly contested action, Ruotolo bested ‘The Dutch Knight’ via unanimous decision, moving to 3-0 in ONE Championship.