Kade Ruotolo recently sat down with the press after his impressive title defence at ONE on Prime Video 5, and he decided to open up about the plans he had for his MMA career. This isn’t the first time that either of the Ruotolo brothers have discussed their future as MMA fighters instead of Jiu-Jitsu competitors, but it is the most detail that either of them has ever gone into. When the pair of top grapplers first signed with ONE Championship, they both mentioned that they were doing so with the intention of competing in both submission grappling and MMA for the promotion. When Kade Ruotolo laid down the plans he had for his career, he doubled down on his future as an MMA fighter:
“For the submission grappling, I reckon I’ll try to defend this belt as much as I can. Stay here for now, especially now that my brother is a division above me, possibly, taking on all the big guys right now. As far as MMA goes, I reckon I’ll be fighting about 170lbs. Possibly even get down to 155lbs too, we’ll see. But yeah, honestly, we’ll see with time for sure.”
Kade Ruotolo was clear that his time as an MMA fighter was still a little while away, and he obviously still has plenty to do in professional grappling first. A veteran of ADCC, IBJJF worlds, and other promotions; he also seemed pretty certain of what ruleset he preferred to compete under as well:
It’s up to the athletes to make it exciting and that’s kind of been the whole back of this Jiu-Jitsu… A lot of athletes play by the rules and try to squeak out wins and I think that’s why ONE is the future in submission grappling. Their ruleset, they make it exciting and they bring exciting people on. So as long as ONE keeps doing that, the future is bright, for sure.”
The post-fight press conference with Kade Ruotolo where he explains the plans that he has for his MMA career was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The MMA Superfan:
