"There's been a lot of striking" - Kade Ruotolo admits BJJ is on the back burner as his MMA debut nears

ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo is hanging up his rashguard, albeit temporarily, and will lace up the four-ounce gloves for his next fight.

The 21-year-old BJJ savant is finally making his highly-anticipated mixed martial arts debut at ONE 167, against dangerous adversary Blake Cooper.

Considering he'll be scrapping under a completely different ruleset than he's used to, Ruotolo has also tweaked his training regime.

Unsurprisingly, the Atos star has been spending a lot of time hitting pads and training pure wrestling, instead of just focusing on jiu-jitsu day in and day out.

In an appearance on the Talk-Jitsu podcast, Ruotolo admitted that taking a breather from BJJ is the secret to his career longevity. After all, he and his twin brother Tye have been training since they were three and also get burned out from time to time. He said:

"Recently, there's been a lot more striking [in training], of course, and wrestling, things like that. It's not uncommon for us to take breaks in jiu-jitsu. We've always taken a lot of breaks in jiu-jitsu."

However, Kade Ruotolo made it clear that he's not completely abandoning his grappling roots. After all, he promises to use his elite grappling to win his first MMA match. The youngest ADCC world champion added:

"Not that I'm breaking away from jiu-jitsu [totally], it's an MMA fight. But putting it on the back burner a little bit not training every single day in jiu-jitsu or spending most of my day training jiu-jitsu."

Watch the full interview:

Kade Ruotolo embracing a white belt mentality in MMA foray

While Kade Ruotolo is a genius in all things grappling, he admits he has a lot to learn when it comes to MMA.

The decorated grappler, though, is a natural athlete who absorbs every bit of knowledge thrown his way. In the same interview, Ruotolo said he's enjoying going back to square one in his new martial arts journey:

"It’s refreshing to learn something new everyday. It feels like I’m back in a blue belt and white level [level] the striking and everything like that.”

The stacked ONE 167 will air live on US Primetime from Bangkok's Lumpinee Stadium on June 7. The full event is free for Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.