“He has some heavy hands and good wrestling” - Kade Ruotolo wary of Blake Cooper’s complete MMA arsenal
The much-awaited MMA debut of current undisputed ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo is finally happening on June 7 at ONE 167. There, he will take on Blake Cooper in a lightweight MMA bout.
Ruotolo and Cooper are added to the loaded card, which will be headlined by the ONE atomweight MMA world title defense of Stamp Faitex against Denice Zamboanga inside the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
Ahead of his first mixed martial arts match, the 21-year-old BJJ phenom talked to ONE Championship in a recent interview and discussed the well-rounded skillset of Cooper and how thrilled he is to compete against him.
The Atos representative said:
"He has some heavy hands and good wrestling. He's a scrapper. Anyone from Hawaii is a scrapper. I know that for sure, so I'm excited."
This marks the first official MMA match for Kade Ruotolo after reigning supreme in the submission grappling space with a clean 6-0 slate in the world's largest martial arts organization. That run was amassed en route to becoming the inaugural titleholder of the division.
Among the notable opponents that the BJJ savant has victimized are Shinta Aoki, Uali Kurzhev, Matheus Gabriel, and Tommy Langaker (twice).
Kade Ruotolo chalked up his second submission victory at the expense of Francisco Lo with a new technique
Kade Ruotolo was fresh off his incredible submission win over Francisco Lo at ONE Fight Night 21 last Friday inside the hallowed ring of the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. He secured his second submission finish in six bouts in the promotion.
He and his brother, Tye, pulled off the 'Ruotolo-tine' technique on the same night to earn themselves an additional $50,000 bonus from ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong.
Heavyweight MMA contender Ben Tynan was the third recipient of the bonus to complete the awardees of the stacked and entertaining card.