"There are levels to grappling" - Demetrious Johnson on Kade Ruotolo's brilliance at a young age
It can be easy to overlook just how many years Kade Ruotolo has spent training to be an elite grappler because of his age. At just 21 years old, both he and his twin brother have accomplished so much because they have been competing for a long time.
So much so that Kade is now starting to look for new challenges, like at ONE 167 where he made his MMA debut and got his hand raised.
It was a successful start to a new and exciting chapter of his career as he submitted Blake Cooper in the opening round.
Ahead of his first time competing inside the Circle under MMA rules, Kade caught up with ONE flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson.
Johnson, who has been dedicating himself completely to jiu-jitsu in recent times, marveled at how the Ruotolo twins have had nearly twenty years of experience in grappling already.
Speaking on the MightyCast about how they are only going to continue getting better after beginning their training as children, Johnson said:
"There are levels to this grappling, right? You've been grappling since you were three years old. Now you're 21. You do another 20 years and you're like in the Masters 4 division. I'm like 'F**k!'"
Watch the full interview below:
Kade Ruotolo is still motivated to improve his jiu-jitsu
In another section of the podcast interview, Kade Ruotolo spoke about his motivation to compete in MMA. He made it perfectly clear that whilst working on his MMA skills has been the priority in recent times, it isn't because he has fallen out of love with jiu-jitsu.
The ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion is always looking for ways to improve, MMA simply presents a whole new challenge altogether.
However, to see his slick submission skills put to use in a new arena, simply take a look back at ONE 167.
The entire card is available to watch back in full for free via Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription.