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Reigning ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo of the United States is one of the most talented jiu-jitsu fighters on the planet. He is without a doubt a pound-for-pound great.
However, the 21-year-old American phenom is a multisport athlete and has grand designs on becoming a mixed martial arts world champion. Which is why Ruotolo pushed hard to make his MMA debut a few weeks ago at ONE 167 on Prime Video, where he defeated countryman Blake Cooper via rear-naked choke in the first round.
Speaking to veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani on a recent guest appearance on The MMA Hour, Ruotolo talked about MMA, and how it's such a different sport compared to pure jiu-jitsu.
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The lightweight submission grappling king said:
"I think you have to want to do MMA. I think some people like the idea of moving to MMA, you know, and within the first week they realize this is such a completely different sport. That was the first thing that I realized, when you got so much respect."
Ruotolo added:
"I consider MMA to be kinda like an extreme sport. There’s not many extreme sports in the world, but the fact that you have Muay Thai, you know jiu-jitsu, wrestling, judo, all these martial arts, you know, boxing, mixed into one, it’s just there’s so much to look out for. It’s a completely different sport. You can’t compare it to anything else. I think that has a big factor to do with it."
Kade Ruotolo defends lightweight belt against Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168: Denver
Kade Ruotolo will return to jiu-jitsu when he defends the ONE lightweight submission grappling world title against flyweight king 'Darth Rigatoni' Mikey Musumeci.
The two will compete at ONE 168: Denver, the ONE Championship's return to United States soil. The event will be broadcast live from the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, on Friday, September 6th.
Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action live and absolutely free on Amazon Prime Video.
