Kade Ruotolo reveals his two favorite MMA fighters ever: “Those are the two that come to mind”

Reigning and undisputed ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo of the United States recently made his professional mixed martial arts debut, scoring a first-round submission over fellow American Blake Cooper at ONE 167 last month.

The lightweight standout is carving his own path of success in MMA, but he knows that in order to achieve greatness, he must look at those who came before him and learn the lessons from their careers.

That being said, Ruotolo has a couple of big names he looks up to.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani in a recent guest appearance on The MMA Hour, Ruotolo revealed his two most favorite MMA fighters -- two absolute legends.

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The 21-year-old BJJ black belt said:

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"Tank Abbott was an absolute legend for sure. I’ve just seen a podcast recently, too, super rad to see. But yeah, Tank’s an absolute legend, obviously Tito came out of Huntington Beach. Those are the two that come to mind, but Huntington, more of the neighboring cities like Newport Laguna, and things like that, you get a lot of tough people out of there."

Needless to say, Tank Abbott and Tito Ortiz are legends in the sport of mixed martial arts, and Kade Ruotolo has a long way to go before he can even be mentioned in the same breath as these veterans.

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Kade Ruotolo to defend ONE lightweight gold against Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168: Denver on September 6th

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Kade Ruotolo will defend his ONE lightweight submission grappling world championship against ONE flyweight submission grappling world titleholder 'Darth Rigatoni' Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168: Denver.

The event broadcasts live from the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Friday, September 6th.

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action live and absolutely free on Amazon Prime Video. Stay tuned to Sportskeeda MMA for all the latest news and updates on the event as it happens.

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