"A whole new chapter" - Tye Ruotolo excited for twin brother Kade's professional MMA debut at ONE 167
At just 21 years old, Kade and Tye Ruotolo have accomplished a lot in the submission grappling world.
The ONE lightweight and welterweight submission grappling world championships holders have been dominant under the ONE banner.
So much so that it was only a matter of time before they started to look for new challenges that would test them even further.
For Kade, in particular, that next pursuit was always being lined up to be MMA so that he could try to round out his game as a martial artist.
Ahead of ONE Fight Night 21, his long-awaited MMA debut was announced for ONE 167, where he will take on Blake Cooper at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
Tye Ruotolo, as always, will be right beside his brother throughout this entire process, and he's excited to watch it all play out.
He said in his press conference after ONE Fight Night 21 that he knows Kade has plenty of experience with throwing strikes:
"I'm super excited. It's a whole new chapter, just in life in general, you know? We grew up training jiu-jitsu our whole lives, and we grew up beating each other up our whole lives with punches, you know. So I know that we both have a lot of fight in us."
Watch the full press conference below:
Tye Ruotolo has total faith in his brother and his skills
Nobody has spent more time training alongside Kade as Tye Ruotolo has because of their upbringing.
Their training relationship has helped both of them succeed at the very highest level, but now comes a new kind of challenge.
Kade has let it be no secret since arriving in the promotion that MMA was something that was on his radar, but now the time has finally arrived.
With Tye Ruotolo in his corner, we will determine whether Kade is ready to compete in MMA and make a real run in the lightweight division.
On June 7, the Ruotolo brothers go to war, but this time, they jump outside their comfort zone rather than challenge someone to try and beat them in submission grappling.
North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can rewatch all the action from ONE Fight Night 21 via the free on-demand replay.