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ONE grappler and recently-crowned youngest ADCC world champion ever, Kade Ruotolo, will be fighting for ONE's inaugural lightweight submission grappling world title at ONE on Prime Video 3. Against him will be former multi-time sambo world champion Uali Kurzhev.
Kade Ruotolo, one-half of the famed Rutolo brothers, is increasingly becoming one of the biggest names in grappling today along with his twin brother, Tye. Winning ONE's coveted lightweight submission grappling world title will surely be a feather in the young prodigy's cap.
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His opponent, Uali Kurzhev, is perhaps the perfect match for Ruotolo if he wants to showcase his skills to a global audience. The renowned Russian grappler is quite prominent in hardcore sambo and judo circles. Kurzev is a four-time Czech Republic sambo national champion, four-time sambo world cup gold medalist, and a former European sambo national champion.
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During ONE's virtual press conference for ONE on Prime Video 3, Kade Ruotolo was asked what he thought of Kurzhev's hard-hitting sambo style of grappling. Ruotolo responded with:
"Someone left a comment on my last Instagram post: ‘If Sambo was easy, it would be called Jiu-Jitsu.’ So these matches [jiu-jitsu vs. sambo] are really cool, we can merge the two styles. Sambo guys have great takedowns and leg locks, so it’ll be fun to figure out his style. But I believe in BJJ, we have a few more moves, more options, so it’ll be an interesting matchup."
It might be true that ONE is fanning the flames for a rivalry between sambo and jiu-jitsu in submission grappling. It's perhaps part of their efforts to elevate the sport to a global mainstream audience. Kade Ruotolo has perhaps the most frenetic grappling style than any jiu-jitsu competitor in his weight class, and Kurzhev definitely has the style and pedigree to match it.
Watch Kade Ruotolo's interview segment here:
Kade Ruotolo vs. Uali Kurzhev is just the latest addition to the rivalry between sambo and jiu-jitsu in ONE Championship
ONE Championship may have accidentally (or not) reignited a long-standing rivalry between two martial arts -- sambo and jiu-jitsu. Most matches between these two combat sports took place in MMA, but now ONE is bringing the rivalry to submission grappling.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a grappling martial art that centers largely on ground fighting. It favors leverage and technique over power and size, allowing smaller people to defeat larger assailants.
Sambo, on the other hand, is a Russian military style that utilizes grappling, striking and intense ground fighting. Sambo emphasizes powerful throws and fast submissions.
The rivalry may have started with former ONE lightweight world champion and grappling legend Shinya Aoki vs. former ONE featherweight king and sambo world champion Marat Gafurov back in 2018. The rivalry got reignited this year when jiu-jitsu blackbelt Rodrigo Marello scored the fastest win in ONE submission grappling history by submitting Ruslan Bagdasarian in just 15 seconds.
Kade Ruotolo and Uali Kurzhev continue this intense rivalry and who knows, we might see jiu-jitsu athletes jumping into combat sambo in the near future. If there's any organization that can make this happen, it's definitely ONE Championship.
