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Newly-crowned ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo is not wasting any time looking for new challenges to conquer.
After submitting sambo specialist Uali Kurzhev at ONE on Prime Video 3 for the belt, Kade Ruotolo took the mic and called out two men in his division.
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In his post-fight interview with Mitch Chilson, the 19-year old Brazilian jiu-jitsu prodigy expressed his intention to defend his world title as soon as possible. Ruotolo mentioned two names:
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"The sooner we can get back in here, in the circle, the better. You know, I want to go ahead and defend my title ASAP. I got a couple of names on my mind, if you don’t mind me calling them out. They both start with T’s: Tainan Dalpra and Tommy Langaker. Both of those matchups sound insane. I know both of those guys are signed to ONE. If we could get it going towards the end of the year, I would love those matches, for sure. We need to get it going."
Watch the full post-fight interview here:
Who are the two men Kade Ruotolo called out, Tainan Dalpra and Tommy Langaker?
ONE submission grappling fighter Tainan Dalpra is an elite BJJ black belt who is a two-time IBJJF world champion. He is also considered by FloGrappling as the No.1 pound-for-pound Gi jiu-jitsu black belt competitor today. Dalpra, who fights out of the Art of Jiu-jitsu (AOJ) team under the Mendes brothers, has an impressive 53-1 record with 38 submissions under his belt.
It would be interesting to see Dalpra translate his expertise and skills in Gi jiu-jitsu into the hard-hitting No Gi submission grappling style of Kade Ruotolo. Or pehaps ONE can host its very first-ever Gi jiu-jitsu match with Ruotolo defending his throne against Dalpra?
Tommy Langaker, another product of the Mendes brothers, is a Scandinavian grappling powerhouse who brings the fight to anyone on the mats. The former IBJJF Pans and European Open champion made his ONE Championship debut back in August at ONE 160.
The Norwegian nightmare defeated the equally-game Renato Canuto in an exciting bout that earned the victor a $50,000 performance bonus.
Both fighters are indeed signed with ONE and are within the range of Kade Ruotolo's division. Here's to hoping the young grappling world champion gets what he wants and locks horns with one of these possible rivals soon.
