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Reigning and undisputed ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo of the United States recently made his professional mixed martial arts debut earlier this month. And the 21-year-old jiu-jitsu black belt admits it was tougher than he had expected.
Despite that, Ruotolo needed just one round to take care of business against fellow American Blake Cooper at ONE 167 on Prime Video, tapping out the Hawaiian with a rear-naked choke after showcasing a bit of his striking.
Speaking to veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani on a recent guest appearance on The MMA Hour, Ruotolo talked about his first experience as an MMA fighter.
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The lightweight submission grappling king said:
"I wouldn’t say it went better than I thought and I wouldn’t say that it went worse than I thought. I definitely felt that in the feet I had so much more to show, as far as my striking goes. I definitely, you could say I wasn’t as comfortable."
He continued:
"I think there’s a lot of things from the night before the fight, that kind of let up to that made me a little bit more nervous. It was weird the entire camp I wasn’t nervous at all, until the morning of. Usually it’s the opposite for me, usually I kinda have a little bit of nerves, then the morning of the fight comes I stop hands and there’s no nerves. I think that was the main difference between a jiu-jitsu match."
Kade Ruotolo to defend lightweight gold against flyweight champ Mikey Musumeci
Kade Ruotolo will not need to be worried about getting punched in the face for his next bout. But that doesn't make it any easier.
The 21-year-old is scheduled to defend his lightweight submission grappling world title against flyweight king 'Darth Rigatoni' Mikey Musumeci.
The two lock horns at ONE 168: Denver, which takes place at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Friday, September 6th.
Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action live and absolutely free on Amazon Prime Video.
