Tye Ruotolo promises to put on a show when he returns to Lumpinee Stadium against Dante Leon

Tye Ruotolo acknowledged his responsibility to showcase an entertaining submission grappling match when he steps between the ropes inside one of the most hallowed grounds in combat sports.

Next Friday, May 2, Ruotolo will be featured in the ONE Fight Night 31 co-main event with an opportunity to extend his welterweight submission grappling world title reign. The American superstar's upcoming opponent is a well-respected challenger, Dante Leon.

Ruotolo recently did an interview with ONE and promised to showcase an entertaining submission grappling match against Leon:

"People come, they spend their money, all these locals are spending their hard-earned money coming from who knows where to watch these people. The least they could do is be entertained. That's the least we could do for them, right?"

ONE Fight Night 31 goes down inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. Next Friday's event can be seen live and for free by American and Canadian viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.

The May 2 event will be headlined by a non-title flyweight Muay Thai rematch between Kongthoranee and Nong-O Hama. Kongthoranee defeated the former ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion by a razor-close split decision in February.

---

Tye Ruotolo and Dante Leon have a history outside of ONE Championship

Dante Leon defeated Tye Ruotolo by decision in their first meeting at the Grapplefest 8 in 2020. A year later, Ruotolo avenged the defeat by submitting Leon with a guillotine at a Who's Number One event.

While speaking to ONE, Ruotolo had this to say about Leon being pissed that he submitted him four years ago:

"I remember, back at the Who's Number One championship, that was a really big competition. And I remember after I beat him, I could tell he was pretty pissed about it. I could tell he's been wanting to get this one back for a long time."

Dante Leon's ONE Championship tenure has started with wins against Bruno Pucci (armbar) and Tommy Langaker (unanimous decision).

Meanwhile, Tye Ruotolo is a 2x ONE welterweight submission grappling world champion in ONE with a promotional record of 7-0. Ruotolo holds wins against Jozef Chen, Izaak Michell, Magomed Abdulkadirov, Dagi Arslanaliev, Reinier de Ridder, Marat Gafurov, and Garry Tonon.