At ONE 157, ONE Championship's most recent grappling acquisition, Kade Ruotolo, absolutely delivered on his ONE debut against the legendary Shinya Aoki. The prodigious 19-year-old is one half of the famed Ruotolo Twins, jiu-jitsu's first sibling child stars.
Last night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Kade showed why him and his brother Tye are the future of submission grappling.
Kade was in attack mode from start to finish, constantly pressing the action and hunting for submission opportunities. He even attempted things in the match that we swear we have never seen attempted in submission grappling ever.
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Even the veteran in Shinya Aoki couldn't handle the pace Kade put on him. In the end, despite not scoring any subs, Kade was handed the clear decision for the sheer number of submission attempts he had.
Speaking to ONE in his post-fight presser, the grappling phenom expressed his thoughts on the submission grappling match:
"To be honest, I'm still not 100% content with my performance. Every time I go into a match, my goal is to get the submission and under the last [ONE] rule set, it would have been a draw... Shinya [Aoki] did an amazing job at keeping wrist control and he didn't really make any mistakes, any big mistakes, you know. So I really just kept trying to push the pace."
Watch the full post-fight presser below:
In his ONE Championship debut, Kade Ruotolo dominated Shinya Aoki at ONE 157
Kade Ruotolo absolutely wiped the floor with a legend in Shinya Aoki in his first submission grappling match in ONE Championship last night. The fiery young lion came out aggressive while the grizzled vet was a lot more passive and cautious. Kade's first crazy move, using an ankle pick to spin Aoki around to get his back, wowed the crowd.
With Aoki seemingly using the cage to his advantage, Ruotolo ironically used the cage to launch himself into the air and jump guard. Mid-transition, the teenager swiftly shifted to back control as they hit the floor. The entire sequence will forever be part of Ruotolo's career highlight reel.
As if he hadn't exhausted all of his crazy moves yet, Ruotolo attempted a guillotine choke from behind Aoki. That's not even anatomically possible. The match concluded with Ruotolo trying to submit Aoki with his trademark buggy choke as the time expired.
With such an impressive showing on his ONE Championship debut, Kade Ruotolo will definitely be someone to watch out for in the future.