Tye Ruotolo on his and twin brother Kade’s MMA aspirations: “We’ve both had MMA in our hearts for a long time”

American submission grappling phenom Tye Ruotolo is ready to capture the ONE Championship belt and become a submission grappling world champion in the world’s largest martial arts organization. But the 20-year-old phenom admits he and his brother Kade have long thought of a transition to mixed martial arts.

The Ruotolo twins are next-gen grapplers and have an incredibly entertaining grappling style to match. However, they have said they wanted to make the move to MMA sooner rather than later, and fans can’t wait until they are throwing down in the circle.

Speaking to MMA Mania in a recent interview, Ruotolo talked about he and his brother’s MMA aspirations.

The 20-year-old said:

“Yeah, we’ve both had MMA in our hearts for a long time but I could tell like by December, he's ready to go, you know. He's been training a lot more about it. I could tell just all day long, when we're scrapping with each other, that he's ready to go. I'm going to let him do the debut first and see how that goes, right? If he smashes, if he does good, then it's on right?”

Needless to say, Ruotolo is happy with how his career has turned out in ONE Championship. He added:

“With ONE Championship, we have a lot of hope and opportunity right now for the jiu-jitsu community to be breaking through grounds we've never seen before. We have a platform and a promotion that has jiu-jitsu, and it’s never been on that level, you know. And that's why I'm so excited to become a champ for ONE because when we’re fighting, the feeling you get walking out the tunnel, you know, at the Lumpinee Stadium, where you feel so deep in your bones.”

See the full interview below:

Before Ruotolo goes over to the MMA side, he will have the opportunity to join his twin brother Kade as a ONE world champion in his next match.

Ruotolo is set to lock horns with Magomed Abdulkadirov of Russia in the co-main event at ONE Fight Night 16: Haggerty vs. Andrade on Prime Video, which broadcasts live from the iconic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday, November 3.

The winner will be crowned the inaugural ONE welterweight submission grappling world champion.

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action of ONE Fight Night 16: Haggerty vs. Andrade live and absolutely free with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.