“He’s dead serious” - Chatri Sityodtong says Kade Ruotolo offered to fight both Shinya Aoki and Tommy Langaker on the same night

Shinya Aoki battling John Lineker on short notice after Sage Northcutt’s sudden withdrawal was the most surprising storyline from the action-packed ONE 165 mega event in Tokyo last weekend.

Turns out, that whole ordeal could have been crazier, as revealed by ONE Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong in the post-event interview.

While ‘Hands of Stone’ ultimately saved the day and battled Aoki, there was another athlete scheduled to fight that night who wanted to be Northcutt’s replacement.

Kade Ruotolo, who was already booked to grapple Tommy Langaker in the co-main event, immediately stepped up and asked to make his MMA debut against the Japanese icon.

According to Sityodtong, the 21-year-old was even willing to compete twice in one night in both MMA and submission grappling.

The ONE head honcho revealed:

“There’s another crazy side story. Kade Ruotolo comes walking up to me in the hallway and he says, ‘Chatri, I would fight Shinya.’ And I said ‘MMA?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I will.’ And I was like, ‘What about your title defense?’ and he was like, ‘I’d do that too. I’d fight Shinya and Tommy now, tonight.’ And he’s dead serious."

Chatri Sityodtong continued:

“And then I looked at him in the eye and for a split second I was like, 'I wanna do it.' But then I was like, ‘What if he gets cut up? He won’t be able to defend his submission grappling title.' So I was like, 'Kade,' you know, he texted me three times after that, ‘I wanna, I wanna, let me fight Shinya, my MMA debut, now, now, now.’"

As interesting as it sounds, Chatri Sityodtong certainly made the right call not to give in to Ruotolo’s wild request.

Meanwhile, the reigning lightweight submission grappling world champion went on to successfully defend his belt with a stellar performance against Langaker.

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Chatri Sityodtong says Kade Ruotolo’s initiative is a testament to ONE athletes’ never back down attitude

While Chatri Sityodtong has practically seen it all in his long tenure in the martial arts scene, he admits being taken aback by how things unfolded at ONE 165.

The ONE executive, though, lauded Kade Ruotolo’s courage to fight twice in one night on a moment’s notice:

“In my 12 years, hundreds of events, I’ve never seen this. Never have I ever [experienced] such craziness. But again, at ONE Championship, this is what we do. The very best of the best on the planet, fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. Some organizations tweet about it. But our boys and girls, they do it.”

If you missed any of the action or want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE 165 replay can be watched on demand via watch.onefc.com.