ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo may have opened up his mixed martial arts account with relative ease at ONE 167 in June, but the American ground game wizard admits it wasn't all smooth sailing for him.
In an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated, The Atos representative touched on his battle with an unverified illness that took him by surprise just 24 hours out of his eagerly-awaited MMA debut against Blake Cooper inside the Impact Arena.
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"I was spitting blood and puking nonstop. That was awful. I got like two hours of sleep the night before, so I was a little nervous. I really wanted to finish it early, and that's what I was able to do."
Despite the bug's best efforts to throw a spanner in the works, Kade Ruotolo never missed a beat on fight night. The California native did what he does best, submitted Cooper, and lived up to his words to get his MMA career off and running in some fashion.
At the same time, the martial arts superstar moved to 7-0 overall in ONE Championship, with six of those victories coming in his bread and butter of submission grappling.
Kade Ruotolo expects sparks to fly in super fight vs Mikey Musumeci
The 21-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu superstar will square off against fellow ONE submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci next in the co-main event of ONE 168: Denver on September 6.
Arguably the two best ground game technicians today, Kade Ruotolo believes the watching world can expect an action-packed 10-minute showdown inside Denver's Ball Arena featuring intense locks, positional controls, and a bucketload of submissions.
In the same interview, he continued:
"There will be constant submission attempts. We're stoked - it's going to be a great one for the fans."
Tickets for ONE 168: Denver can be purchased on Ticketmaster.
