“It’s unheard of” - Mikey Musumeci in awe at Kade Ruotolo’s accomplishments at ADCC

Mikey Musumeci and Kade Ruotolo are considered two of the brightest young stars in the submission grappling scene.

Now fighting in the largest martial arts organization in the world, Musumeci has reached the pinnacle of the sport by being crowned the inaugural ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion.

Meanwhile, Ruotolo has the opportunity to follow Musumeci’s lead and become the first submission grappling king for the lightweight ranks at ONE on Prime Video 3.

On October 21, at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the 19-year-old prodigy will represent Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners across the globe against former Sambo world champion Uali Kurzhev.

Kade, who’s one-half of the Ruotolo siblings alongside fellow ONE Championship athlete Tye, made a rousing promotional debut when he outclassed veteran grappler Shinya Aoki at ONE 157 in May.

However, it was his magical run at the most recent Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Championships that dropped many jaws. The Atos Jiu-Jitsu product went unbeaten in the entire tournament and had a 100% submission rate in all his fights. He capped that off by becoming the youngest ADCC world champion in history.

Mikey Musumeci, who withdrew from the same tournament, recognizes the amazing feat accomplished by the young Ruotolo.

In an interview with ONE Championship, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ said:

“ADCC for submission wrestling is the biggest tournament in no-gi, you know, so that’s the World Championship for no-gi. And Kade, he went in there, broke the record as the youngest ADCC World Champion, 19 years old, and he submitted every match. It’s unheard of. It’s really unheard of what he did.”

Mikey Musumeci, of course, is also used to doing the unthinkable on the mats and has quite a resume of his own. He introduced himself to ONE fans by choking out the legendary Masakazu Imanari in his debut.

The 26-year-old jiu-jitsu ace followed that up with his gold-winning performance against Cleber Sousa in a hard-fought 10-minute grappling war at ONE on Prime Video 2 in September.

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Mikey Musumeci says ONE gold strap is the biggest world title in jiu-jitsu

Mikey Musumeci has pretty much accomplished everything there is in traditional jiu-jitsu, having won the IBJJF black belt world title five times. While that is an amazing accomplishment, ‘Darth Rigatoni’ argues that it doesn’t compare to winning a world title on ONE’s global stage.

He shared in the same interview:

“Now, this is a different league of competing. In ONE Championship, this is professional, this is a different realm of competing, and this is for a title. This is in front of so many people, millions of people watching this.”

The Evolve MMA standout added:

“So this is, in my opinion, the biggest possible title in jiu-jitsu, and it will be forever the biggest title in jiu-jitsu with what we’re doing right now. So it’s so special that Kade and I both have the opportunity to be the first champions of ONE in our divisions.”