“Where I am today is the blueprint” - Cole Abate proud to show other young athletes how to follow in his footsteps

20-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt world champion 'Ice' Cole Abate of the United States is on top of the world right.

Aside from making a smashing debut in the world's largest martial arts organization just a couple of weeks ago at ONE Fight Night 26 on Prime Video, where he defeated Japanese MMA legend Shinya Aoki via submission, Abate also won his first IBJJF black belt world title.

Needless to say, 'Ice' Cole is riding a tremendous wave of momentum that he hopes to bring into the next year.

But more importantly, Abate wants to inspire the next generation of grapplers who are looking to follow in his footsteps.

He said on Instagram:

"I just feel like this whole path to where I am today is the blueprint for all of these kids that are coming up for all of the professional athletes that are trying to make a career, trying to make a living in jiu-jitsu."

ONE Fight Night 26: Lee vs. Rasulov on Prime Video was broadcast live from the historic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand last Saturday, Dec. 7. Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action via replay on-demand with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.

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Cole Abate says success didn't come without hard work: "There’s a lot we went through to get to this point"

One thing 'Ice' Cole Abate wants to show the next generation is that the amount of success he has so far achieved in his young career did not come without good old-fashioned elbow grease.

He said:

"It’s incredible, and I feel like that’s the part that I’m talking about, that there’s a lot we went through to get to this point, but if people ask me ‘do you regret anything about the process’ or ‘is there anything you could have done to speed it up?’ It’s like no, everything happened, there was a lesson behind, there was something that let us know like, hey, you guys are on the right track, or we need to be shifting on to this."

Stay tuned to Sportskeeda MMA for all the latest news and updates surrounding Cole Abate's next fight.