"The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" - Kade Ruotolo says MMA legend Tito Ortiz put Huntington Beach on the map
If there's any guy in the world Kade Ruotolo wants to emulate within the next few years as he kickstarts his MMA career, it would have to be MMA legend Tito Ortiz. The 21-year-old superstar is thrilled about extending his decorated jiu-jitsu career into the MMA realm, after having a near-perfect debut at ONE 167 last month.
Raised in Huntington Beach, California, Kade has resonated a lot with the MMA greats of old, like Tito 'The Huntington Beach Bad Boy' Ortiz. The former heavyweight UFC world champion also began his MMA career with a strong wrestling base at the collegiate level before taking his talents to the UFC.
There's so much in Ortiz that Kade Ruotolo would love to learn from, training as hard as he does now, to make his dreams as a two-sport world champion a reality.
Taking about Ortiz on The MMA Hour, Kade says he feels a great responsibility to continue carrying on the good name of the city they came from.
"Tito, the Huntington Beach Bad Boy. Anyone coming out Huntington Beach got to represent for sure."
Kade Ruotolo is delving into the line of fire one more time this year to defend his ONE lightweight submission grappling world title against fellow world grappler 'Darth Rigatoni' Mikey Musumeci in Denver on Sept. 6.
It's the first time that Kade has ever faced a name so recognized in the grappling world as Musumeci, so expect this match to be nothing but an absolute barnburner.
Tickets for ONE 168: Denver are available via Ticketmaster.
"It's probably one of the greatest MMA debuts" - ONE CEO Chatri Sityodtong gushes about Kade Ruotolo's first MMA match
Kade Ruotolo becomes more of an anomaly every time he steps into the ring. The Californian kid has an aptitude for any kind of discipline in the world, as he just demonstrated last month in his first MMA match ever.
As usual, there were high expectations for Kade. The 21-year-old standout had hyped up his striking game way before transitioning into MMA. Shockingly, he has trained in Muay Thai maybe for as long as he's been training in jiu-jitsu. That night at ONE 167, the fans got a real feel for Kade's fighting style and so did Chatri Sityodtong.
Gushing about the youngster, the ONE Championship CEO said:
"His transitions, well some of his kicks were off in terms of timing, but that's to be expected. But I thought for his MMA debut, it's probably one of the greatest MMA debuts. He didn't look like a debutant, that's for sure."