“Old school PRIDE FC mentality” - Fans shocked at Kade Ruotolo’s crazy idea to make MMA debut at ONE 165

The massive ONE 165 card that went down inside the Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan, not only lived up to the great fights that were delivered from the loaded lineup of matches but also amassed a few amazing stories throughout the groundbreaking event.

One of the mind-boggling stories was shared by ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong in a recent Instagram post by the promotion. According to him, ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo was ready to step in for Sage Northcutt to fight Shinya Aoki in a lightweight MMA match prior to his world title defense against Tommy Langaker in the co-main event of the card.

Sityodting narrated:

“In my 12 years running hundreds of events, thousands of athletes, I’ve never had anybody say, ‘Give me a fight!’ Right?! Two different men in the same night. This guy is crazy. I’m in the hallway and I was like, ‘Do I do it?’ I’m like, ‘But then how… if he gets banged up in any way then he won’t be able to fight.’ Then, I was like, ‘Sorry!’”

Northcutt pulled out of his lightweight MMA match with Aoki at the last minute due to the visa problems that his coaches encountered, and former ONE bantamweight MMA world champion John Lineker replaced him to fight the Japanese legend in an MMA openweight match. Eventually, Lineker was submitted by Aoki in the opening round.

Because of this willingness and love for competition, the 21-year-old BJJ savant garnered positive comments from fans all over the world, and the message from platform users @stylezhiiipower, @stoneside_music, @charlie_k1989, @kaimiyo, @daboy_key1441, @mr_nq18, and @lazercity spearheaded the comment section of the post, as they wrote:

“Old school Pride FC mentality🥋🔥⚒️🏁💪”

“It would’ve been so cool for him to go out there and have his MMA debut against a legend like Aoki and starch that guy. That would be so wild.”

“Reminds me of the good old pride days”

“Oh did he volunteer to fight Aoki?”

“Cool azz cool👏”

“Fight in MMA please”

“@onechampionship The Dude is a Beast , challenging 2 fights in 1 night”

Screenshot of comments

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Kade Ruotolo successfully defends his ONE lightweight submission grappling world title in rematch against Tommy Langaker

After failing to convince Chatri Sityodtong to fight Shinya Aoki, the Atos representative shifted his focus back to the task at hand: defend his ONE lightweight submission grappling world title and reassert his mastery against Tommy Langaker in the co-main event.

That was exactly what he did, as Ruotolo dominated his Norwegian challenger en route to a dominant unanimous decision win. The one-half of the Ruotolo brothers are now looking forward to making his MMA debut this year after yet another masterful performance.