"We'll switch it up" - Kade Ruotolo reveals how he blended striking with his elite grappling in MMA debut

Kade Ruotolo recalled the precise moment he decided to use grappling against Blake Cooper in his MMA debut.

The inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion made a promise to himself long ago to enter MMA as soon as the opportunity presented itself.

At age 21, after defending his grappling world title three times, Kade finally made his MMA debut on June 7 at ONE 167. Although many were on the fence about Kade's striking abilities, fans knew that as soon as the fight hit the canvas, Blake Cooper would have a tough time getting back up to his feet, even if he was a strong wrestler.

With Cooper anticipating the takedown as the first course of action, Kade told Cagepress recently that his strategy centered around boxing first and then shooting for the ground second.

"So that was pretty much the only kind of 'what if' that was running through my brain. So I pretty much wanted to do the complete opposite [striking] and not even worry about that and we'd wanted to see how the hands start going when he starts kinda getting lured into the hands, when and if the kid wanted to box, we'll switch it up on him."

Catch his comments below (1:00):

After having a successful MMA debut, Kade Ruotolo is back to submission grappling to defend his lightweight crown against ONE flyweight submission grappling world titleholder 'Darth Rigatoni' Mikey Musumeci on September 6 in Denver, Colorado.

Tickets for ONE 168: Denver are available via Ticketmaster.

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"We're gonna pass his guard and submit" - Kade Ruotolo sticks with his original three-part strategy to submit Mikey Musumeci

Kade Ruotolo is ready to defend his belt against Mikey Musumeci in the best way possible. Strategy, as mentioned above, is key to his success.

Despite calling it a boring game plan in an interview with ONE Championship, it's the strategy that has worked time and time again against the very best athletes in this sport. So Kade isn't going to get all fancy last minute.

Speaking to ONE, the Californian native revealed how he'd submit Mikey Musumeci using the typical three-step process.

"We're gonna get him down. We're gonna pass his guard and submit. And, if the submission comes in betweeb, perfect."