Tye Ruotolo lists reasons why he doesn’t like fighting his twin brother Kade

Tye Ruotolo would prefer not to compete against his twin brother Kade, who is the ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion.

Speaking at the ONE on Prime Video 5 post-fight press conference following his win over Marat Gafurov, Tye Ruotolo said:

“Yeah, absolutely. I started fighting bigger people a little while ago. And the reason for that being is, my brother and I were always really the same size growing up. In the last couple of years, I've had maybe a five-pound weight advantage on him.”

He continued to explain how he moved up in weight to avoid fighting his brother:

“So I've just been fighting and going up in the division so we can kind of stay away from each other because, at the end of the day, I don't like to fight him that much. He's super tough and he's my brother at the end of the day.”

Tye and Kade Ruotolo entered ONE Championship earlier this year, each earning wins in their promotional debut at ONE 157 in May. Fast forward six months later and the two remain undefeated, with a world title between them and a strong possibility that we will see another crowned in the future as ONE continues to bolster its already impressive roster of submission-grappling superstars.

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Kade and Tye Ruotolo have a very straightforward approach to competition

When it comes to competition, submission grappling duo Kade and Tye Ruotolo take a fairly simple yet incredibly effective approach no matter who steps inside the circle with them. In an interview with ONE Championship, ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo shared his philosophy each time he competes:

“No matter who it is, if I were to fight [MMA legend] Khabib [Nurmagomedov], my goal is to take him down and submit. You know, pass and submit. It’s always the same for everybody. And the same for my brother. For me, that’s always just been the most realistic situation.”

Of course, the process is much easier said than done. Still, few can do it better than Kade Ruotolo, who not only became the youngest ADCC Submission Fighting World Champion of all time, he did so by submitting all four of his opponents in his road to grappling glory. If that weren’t impressive enough, he returned to the circle a month later and submitted a sambo world champion to capture ONE gold.

Needless to say, the sky is the limit for Kade and Tye Ruotolo. What’s next is anyone’s guess, but you can be certain that fans around have their eyes locked on the submission grappling prodigies.