"Incredible ability to put on massive amounts of pressure" - Gordon Ryan on the Ruotolo twins' unique skill that makes them great
ONE submission grappling world champions Kade and Tye Ruotolo haven't always seen eye-to-eye with Gordon Ryan.
Then again, real still recognizes real. At the end of the day, the prolific Ruotolo twins have earned the respect of one of the best grapplers in the world today.
In a throwback clip of Ryan's guest appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2022, Ryan described in great detail what makes the Atos prodigies truly special:
"In order to differentiate yourself and be a champion, you need to be good at everything, good everywhere, and have one or two things you can do better than everybody else. So the Ruotolos are good at everything. They have a unique ability to manage pacing, better than almost anybody. That's one thing."
Ryan continued:
"They have a very unique ability to hit D'Arce strangles from anywhere. They are D'Arce strangle masters more or less. They have very good D'Arces and they can finish people from any position, top or bottom, it doesn't matter."
But perhaps the most underrated aspect of the Ruotolos' relentless attacks is their understanding of creating angles and using leverage to drown their opponents. Ryan added:
"They have an incredible ability to put side-to-side flanking passing pressure, where they're never engaged inside the guard. Every time you see them approach a guard, they always touch the legs and they walk to an angle, they walk to north-south. So the whole time you're in a full crunch trying to pull your knees to your chest, and they have really long arms so they have hands on your legs. You can't make contact. They have incredible ability to put massive amounts of passing pressure on you."
Kade and Tye Ruotolo have massive match-ups lined up
Tye Ruotolo, the reigning ONE welterweight submission grappling king, will spring back to action this coming Friday, July 5, at ONE Fight Night 23: Ok vs Rasulov on Prime Video.
The youngest IBJJF black belt world champion will welcome Jozef Chen to the promotion in an 186-pound catchweight battle.
Meanwhile, Kade Ruotolo, who's fresh from his successful MMA debut last month, will defend his lightweight submission grappling strap against Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168: Denver in September.
These blockbuster events are available free for Prime Video subscribers in North America, as it airs live in US Primetime.