Tye Ruotolo reveals ONE Fight Night 21 pre-match focus was about making his fight "exciting to these Muay Thai fans"
At ONE Fight Night 21, Kade and Tye Ruotolo put on a show for the fans inside the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium on April 5.
Both brothers were set to share the card and, while this was a great moment for them, the Muay Thai fans that packed into the building could have been in for a shock with two submission grappling contests on the card.
The Ruotolos have expressed in the past that their main source of motivation is to help grow submission grappling by putting on exciting matches in ONE Championship in order to win more fans over.
Win fans over they certainly did as they both secured the same exact 'Ruotolo-tine' submission over their respective opponents in two exciting contests.
Tye Ruotolo reflected on this in his post-fight interview with Nick Atkin for Sportskeeda:
"When we first came here to the Lumpinee Stadium, that was something that my brother and I had in the back of our minds. We were like how are we going to make this exciting to these Muay Thai fans, you know? Cause they're here, they want blood and elbows, right?"
He elaborated and said that, ultimately, they were proud to put on a show and get the fans on board with what they are trying to do:
"And, you know, we have just been doing our best every time we step in this ring, we do our best to just put on the best performance for the crowd and also at the same time make sure that we stay undefeated. I'm super stoked to see that the crowd has been, you know, really generating and getting behind us. I mean it means everything to us to see them appreciate and understand submission grappling better."
Watch the full interview below:
Kade and Tye Ruotolo showed up and showed out
It's hard to not become engaged in any form of sporting achievement when you're watching the best in the world at work, and that's what the fans got from Kade and Tye Ruotolo on April 5.
Kade's catchweight win over Francisco Lo helped to set the tone with a fun matchup that ended in stylish fashion. Tye was then able to top this with the defense of his ONE welterweight submission grappling world championship against Izaak Michell.
Even with the circumstances he faced before the contest, Tye put on a great show and left the crowd with no complaints whatsoever.