“It's so massive for jiu-jitsu” - Kade Ruotolo talks about ONE Championship’s contribution to the growth of submission grappling

Kade Ruotolo knew ONE Championship’s aggressive push of submission grappling is a tremendous help in elevating the sport to a whole other level.

The 19-year-old submitted Uali Kurzhev to become the inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion at ONE on Prime Video 3 this past weekend at Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur.

In his post-fight press conference, Ruotolo said that what ONE Championship has done for submission grappling is unlike any other organization. Athletes, too, are given an opportunity that other competitions wouldn’t offer. Ruotolo said at the presser:

“Oh, it's huge. It's so massive for jiu-jitsu, it's motivating for the athletes, right? Jiu-jitsu was kind of stuck in this rut for a long time, where, take worlds, for example, guys train all year as hard as they can, then get to the tournament. When they finally get there, maybe they have eight tough fights, they make it to the final, and they win. And then they're almost losing money.”

He added:

“The hotel, the flight, things like that. And brands like ONE, they're just giving so much more motivation to the athletes. Who's not going to win a $50,000 bonus, right? So every time I step on those mats, my goal is to pull them out as quickly as I can, and hopefully get that paycheck.”

While he aims to submit his opponents as fast as he can, what Ruotolo did to Kurzhev, a four-time sambo world champion, was nothing short of spectacular.

After he weathered off Kurzhev’s aggressive wrestling, Ruotolo methodically isolated the Russian’s right leg before locking in a tight heel hook for the submission finish 4:26 into the match.

---

Kade Ruotolo plans to get back into MMA training

Kade Ruotolo conquered his division in both ONE Championship and the ADCC, and he’s now looking ahead to newer opportunities in his career. In the same press conference, Ruotolo said he’ll go back to his mixed martial arts training in hopes of making his debut in the sport sooner rather than later.

Kade Ruotolo, the 77-kilogram division ADCC world champion, said that his MMA training took a bit of a halt as he prepared for his submission grappling matches. Nevertheless, he’s ready to return and make up for lost ground.

"Guaranteed. I've been working on it a bit more. I kind of had to hit the brakes just for a little bit, I had that huge ADCC tournament and then now this but I'm going to continue working for these hands and my goal is early next year to start mixing it up and have that MMA debut. I'm beyond ecstatic about that as well,” said Kade Ruotolo.