ONE lightweight submission grappling champion Kade Ruotolo will defend his crown against flyweight titleholder Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168: Denver on Friday, Sept. 6, and he’ll enter the match with new confidence and a different perspective after his MMA debut.
Ruotolo got his first professional victory in the all-encompassing sport against Blake Cooper at ONE 167 in June. He has been emboldened by the experience and feels like he can’t be touched at this moment.
“I feel a bit invincible as far as, like, a toughness scale. When you start taking punches and knees and elbows, it’s just like jiu-jitsu becomes so easy – or easier,” Ruotolo claimed to ONE.
“Those accidental kicks or that collar tie that slaps you in the face or whatever, it’s nothing compared to MMA. I think it’s tougher.”
With expert knowledge of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Ruotolo broke down the minute changes he made to his game for his first outing in MMA.
Unsurprisingly, he relied heavily on his incredible skills on the canvas. But Ruotolo explained how the wrestling and striking that may have to come into play forced a different approach.
“In MMA, you don’t want to be rolling as much, taking as much risk, because you really don’t want to be on bottom. It really sucks to get turned over and all the work you put in to get on top in the match just goes away. So I think that’s a little bit more of a presence than in jiu-jitsu,” he remarked.
“In jiu-jitsu, you go for D’Arces and whatever all day and keep the scramble going. That was the only way my game kinda changed for MMA, which is making sure I don’t take any sloppy submissions or any stupid decisions to end up on bottom.”
While the 21-year-old may have had to make changes for his battle at ONE 167, that doesn’t mean he removed anything from his arsenal.
Against Cooper, it seems that Ruotolo’s engrained habit to attack for a submission kicked in.
“We love taking our opponents down, pass and finishing, things like that. So, obviously, we still have all those pillars instilled into us, but, you know, we’re never gonna forget about our leg locks. The leg locks are there. Or, if I am on my back, I probably am gonna do a little bit more than just the average half guard and figure out some way to get on the leg or get up,” the lightweight submission grappling king said.
Evolution has been the name of the game for Kade Ruotolo for some time. After all, he and his brother, Tye, changed their sport as teenagers.
The Californian noted how MMA grapplers have yet to take the next step in how they compete off their backs, while BJJ athletes are well beyond those techniques in their own sport.
“I’d say most MMA fighters aren’t too fond of fighting off their back. And, if they are, it’s very old-school, traditional, you know, Lucas Lepri half-guard kind of things to get up,” Ruotolo explained.
“You’re not really seeing any MMA fighters use those guards that we see on an everyday basis in sport jiu-jitsu … De La Riva and X-guard, and things like that.”
After training and competing in MMA, Ruotolo now has a better understanding of how grappling works in the sport and where his opponents are best suited.
In his opinion, the reliance on wrestling and control makes it quite different to jiu-jitsu.
“I would say it’s almost like submission wrestling. It’s how I would describe most MMA fighters’ games,” Ruotolo said.
Even with his confidence glowing, the Atos standout will have to bring his A-game against Musumeci in Denver.
“Darth Rigatoni” will be relentless in his quest for two-division dominance, and their match is sure to be fireworks when it goes down.
ONE 168: Denver airs live and free on Prime Video at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Friday, Sept. 6. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.