Tye Ruotolo thinks Reinier de Ridder’s jiu-jitsu is “very funky”

Tye Ruotolo is excited to see how he will deal with Reinier de Ridder’s grappling style when they meet at ONE Fight Night 10 on May 5.

The teenage grappling phenom is set to face ‘The Dutch Knight’ in a middleweight submission grappling contest at ONE Championship’s first on-ground event in the United States.

Ahead of their bout, Tye Ruotolo offered his thoughts on Reinier de Ridder’s grappling style. He said:

“I think he’s a very good fighter. I think his jiu-jitsu is very funky. He’s lengthy so he catches [opponents] in weird reverse triangles, like those kinds of submissions. So I think it’s going to be an exciting match, we should go over a lot of positions.”

Tye Ruotolo will give up a significant size and weight disadvantage against the reigning ONE middleweight world champion. Based on his assessment, these are not among his primary concerns heading into their contest.

Reinier de Ridder is known as one of the best grapplers in MMA, winning 16 straight matches on the strength of his ground prowess. As an MMA grappler, he may have attacks that are unfamiliar with pure grapplers like Ruotolo - a challenge that excites the 20-year-old.

The American will look to give his countrymen something to cheer about by solving the puzzle of de Ridder on the ground. However, expect the former two-division ONE world champion to show that he’s not all about size in this matchup by showcasing his own technique.

Fans in North America can catch all the action from the sold-out 1stBank Center in Colorado live and for free via Prime Video with an active Amazon subscription.