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ONE submission grappler and ADCC openweight bronze medalist Tye Ruotolo made an excellent showing this past weekend at ONE on Prime Video 5.
The 19-year-old prodigy was like a buzzsaw against former ONE featherweight world champion and submission specialist Marat 'Cobra' Gafurov. From start to finish, rarely did we see Ruotolo relax or go into neutral mode. He was constantly moving and attacking from all angles.
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The best way to describe Ruotolo's grappling assault on Gafurov was like a violent hurricane. It was a nightmare to deal with as the young Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt kept chaining his attacks in rapid succession. Everything was coming at Gafurov at blinding speed and as he was defending one attack, another one was already coming.
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Eventually, the young black belt jumped into an armbar attempt from the back and then transitioned it into a triangle choke. Tye Ruotolo finished the submission by cranking Gafurov's trapped arm while also locking an excruciating wristlock. Gagurov was completely immobile and had no choice but to tap.
Ruotolo is now two for two with a pair of submission wins in ONE Championship. The latest victory also earned him a nice $50,000 performance bonus.
Watch the finish here:
"Tye Ruotolo 🇺🇸 submits former ONE Featherweight World Champion Marat Gafurov with a NASTY armbar! @ruotolobrothersjiujitsu"
Tye Ruotolo calls out Reinier de Ridder after ONE on Prime Video 5 win
Tye Ruotolo seems hell-bent on fighting men significantly larger than him. After having a brief social media scuffle by calling out ADCC Superfight world champion Gordon Ryan (a man who outweighs him by at least 40 pounds) a few weeks back, Ruotolo called out ONE middleweight world champion Reinier 'The Dutch Knight' de Ridder.
De Ridder fights at 205 pounds and 225 pounds in ONE Championship, previously holding the belts in both weight classes. The Dutch grappler is known for being one of the few jiu-jitsu specialists in MMA and has been largely successful at being so.
After his submission victory over Marat Gafurov, Ruotolo spoke to ONE commentator Mitch Chilson and made the bold callout:
“The true essence of jiu-jitsu is being able to beat the bigger guy no matter what, with pure technique, and I’ve seen Reinier de Ridder say that he’s gonna sub anyone in the world. I definitely want to test that.”
Tye Ruotolo continued:
“He's got his hands full tonight with Mr. Anatoly Malykhin, but yeah, I would love to get a jiu-jitsu match with Reinier. He’s a bit taller, but I think can definitely sub him. Let’s do it.”
De Riddler indeed had his hands full that night as he lost his light heavyweight world title to Anatoly Malykhin. The Russian powerhouse negated all of de Ridder's grappling attacks and proceeded to maul him with punches, eventually knocking him out.
Though 'The Dutch Knight' was finished via strikes, he has never been submitted in professional competition before. It would be interesting to see how Tye Ruotolo would try to submit the much larger de Ridder, especially given that the 19-year-old prodigy has a history of defeating much larger opponents.
