WATCH: Kade Ruotolo’s rise from child prodigy to one of submission grappling’s biggest superstars in ONE Championship
Even at a tender age, Kade Ruotolo has been primed to be one of the best BJJ practitioners in the world because he quickly showed his great upside as a kid by winning multiple tournaments.
The world's largest martial arts organization recently looked back at the journey of Ruotolo in a recent video they published on Instagram, and they captioned it with:
"Destined to dominate 😎 ⭐️ Kade Ruotolo defends his ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Championship against flyweight king Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168: Denver! Who will leave with the W? 🤔 @ruotolobrothersjiujitsu"
In the featured video, ONE Championship shared the humble beginnings of the Atos representative back when he was winning medals and trophies to becoming one of the premier submission artists in the world.
Furthermore, his elite skills in the gentle art have helped him become the inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion. The one-half of the famous Ruotolo twins holds massive wins over Shinya Aoki, Uali Kurzhev, Matheus Gabriel, Tommy Langaker (twice), and Francisco Lo.
Kade Ruotolo won his inaugural MMA fight against Blake Cooper
The 21-year-old American phenom is fresh off a first-round submission win over Blake Cooper in his MMA debut at ONE 167 in June, which went down inside the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.
Now, he is ramping up the preparation for his upcoming world title defense at ONE 168: Denver when he welcomes the challenge of current ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci in a champion-versus-champion clash in front of the Ball Arena crowd in Colorado.
A win for Kade over Musumeci can cement his status as one of the best pound-for-pound submission grapplers in the world and keep his immaculate record under the promotion intact.
ONE 168: Denver will be at the Ball Arena during U.S. primetime on Sept. 6. Tickets for the event are available on Ticketmaster.