FREE FULL FIGHT: Kade Ruotolo nearly rips Uali Kurzhev's foot apart, claims inaugural lightweight submission grappling gold
After a successful debut in ONE Championship in May 2022 at ONE 157, where he unanimously beat former ONE lightweight MMA world champion Shinya Aoki in their grappling match, BJJ phenom Kade Ruotolo was given the world title opportunity in his second match.
Ruotolo fought Russian sambo master Uali Kurzhev at ONE on Prime Video 3 in October 2022 for the inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world title.
The world's largest martial arts organization published the full fight replay on their YouTube channel, and they wrote the video's description, saying:
"A stunning submission closed out the inaugural ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Title battle between BJJ phenom Kade Ruotolo and sambo master Uali Kurzhev in the co-main event of ONE on Prime Video 3!"
The one-half of the famous Ruotolo twins went into attack mode early in the bout and took Kurzhev's back in less than 30 seconds.
From there, he relentlessly pursued submission and scrambled multiple times to get himself into the most favorable position possible.
Ruotolo's first major submission attempt was a D'Arce choke at the 7:29 mark of the match, but the Russian contender survived it to continue the match.
After that, the 21-year-old American star threatened another near-finish with another choke attempt, but the Kurzhev School representative got out and managed to get back on his feet.
The third time was the charm for Ruotolo because his third major submission attempt finally went through. He forced a tap out of Kurzhev with a heel hook submission technique to end the match and become the first-ever king of the weight class.
Kade Ruotolo to face Ahmed Mujtaba in his second MMA fight in ONE Championship
After a successful debut in MMA and beating Blake Cooper last June at ONE 167, the Atos representative is now ready for his second match in the ruleset.
Ruotolo is scheduled to face Ahmed Mujtaba in a lightweight MMA fight on Nov. 8 as part of the ONE 169 card, which goes down inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
North American viewers with an active Prime Video subscription can watch the ONE 169 live and free on Nov. 8.