Demetrious Johnson reveals the advice he gave Kade Ruotolo prior to his successful MMA debut

Demetrious Johnson had some wise words for Kade Ruotolo before he made his pro debut in MMA.

The elite jiu-jitsu competitor has laid out his plans to flick the switch on an MMA career for some time.

At ONE 167, he finally did it and secured his debut win over Blake Cooper in June.

Whilst the majority of the fight played out as a striking contest, as soon as Kade got his hands on his opponent, Cooper was battling a ticking time bomb.

Kade secured the choke in the opening round, using his elite grappling skills to get the job done inside the Circle.

Before he made the walk at the Impact Arena, the ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion spent some time with the flyweight king.

Johnson revealed on a recent episode of the Jaxxon Podcast that his advice to Kade ahead of his MMA debut was to play to his strengths at all times:

​

​

"He's looking great. Like I said, his grappling is so damn good. I just told him, 'Get to where you're the strongest'. If he does that, it's going to be an easy fight."

Watch the full interview below:

Demetrious Johnson is a master of his own advice

Something that has made Demetrious Johnson so effective in MMA for so long is the exact advice he gave to Kade Ruotolo.

The flyweight champion is one of the best minds in the sport, and he uses that to break down opponents, work out his best chance of winning the fight, and then implement a game plan.

Kade wanted to showcase more of his striking, but after taking some time to find his feet, he followed Johnson's advice and looked to close the show.

He's now set to return in a grappling super fight at ONE 168 against Mikey Musumeci, but make no mistake about it: Kade will be back in MMA in the near future.

Tickets for ONE 168 are available via Ticketmaster.

​

​