Tye Ruotolo says he’ll “run through” Izaak Michell, Pedro Marinho to get welterweight submission grappling gold

Tye Ruotolo wants the hardest possible path to the ONE Championship glory.

The youngest-ever IBJJF world champion recently got a shot at the inaugural ONE welterweight submission grappling world title, and Ruotolo named two people who could go up against him for the gold.

Ruotolo got the chance for the inaugural strap when he submitted Dagi Arslanaliev in a catchweight submission grappling bout at ONE Fight Night 13 this past weekend at the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.

In an interview with South China Morning Post, Ruotolo proposed the idea of facing either Izaak Michell or Pedro Marinho for the 185-pound submission grappling strap.

Ruotolo said:

“Yeah absolutely. I think there’s a lot of opportunity at the 185-lb division. There are a lot of great grapplers and I wanna prove myself against all of them. I wanna prove myself as the best so Izaak Michell, Pedro Marinho, all the guys at 185, whoever wants to go, let’s go. I wanna run through all you guys.”

Ruotolo has a chance to make history not just for himself, but also a collective achievement for him and his brother Kade if he does claim the ONE welterweight submission grappling world title.

Kade is the reigning ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion and a world title win for Tye will make them the second set of siblings in ONE Championship history to simultaneously hold world titles.

The first pair of siblings to simultaneously hold gold in the promotion are ONE women’s atomweight world champion Angela Lee and her younger brother Christian, the ONE lightweight and welterweight world champion.

There are no official announcements yet of Tye’s next match, but it is possible that he'll face either Michell or Marinho for the inaugural world title.

Watch Tye's entire interview below: