"Pretty sweet takedown" - Fans marvel at Kade Ruotolo's nasty decision to slam Matheus Gabriel in world title defense
Reigning ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion Kade Ruotolo made his first defense of his championship against Mathus Gabriel in December 2022 at ONE on Prime Video 5.
Ruotolo secured the unanimous decision victory despite being unable to force a tap out of the Brazilian. One of the best moments of the fight for the BJJ phenom was reposted by ONE Championship on their Instagram account with the caption:
"Grappling Genius 🧠🥋 Can BJJ megastar Kade Ruotolo improve to 2-0 in MMA at ONE 169? @ruotolobrothersjiujitsu"
In the video, the 21-year-old sensation used his elite IQ to secure a slam against the challenger. Ruotolo grabbed Gabriel's ankle before grabbing him and eventually putting him down on the mat.
This was only a sample of size of his lopsided performance because he eventually received the nod from the judges. Users @just.an.lpn, @renet993, @rootsrawka, @raph_d_123, and @thicccnificent16 have sent positive reactions to Ruotolo's slam, as they commented:
"All of a sudden my back hurts watching this 😂"
"What a wonderful takedown 🔥"
"You can actually see the face expression of "it was this moment he knew he messed up""
"Pretty sweet takedown."
"Very explosive and intelligence in their application....love it"
Kade Ruotolo believes there is still a lot of room for improvement in his MMA skills
After conquering the submission grappling division, Ruotolo is now on a mission to become a two-sport world champion as he continues to compete in the mixed martial arts ruleset.
The Atos representative is scheduled to face Ahmed Mujtaba in a lightweight MMA scrap on Nov. 8 at ONE 169 in front of the Lumpinee Stadium crowd in Bangkok, Thailand.
Before his second MMA outing, he spoke with MMA Junkie in a recent interview and admitted that there are still a lot of things for him to learn:
"For me and my coaches that's one thing that they're really big on. They really want me to have as many experiences possible before I really do get the belt. Because, you know, I'm definitely obviously green when it comes up to the MMA world and there's a lot of variables, a lot of things to learn."