Demetrious Johnson is one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport, and he’s recently shared his thoughts on the Ruotolo brothers making the transition to it. Not only does Johnson have some great insight as an MMA legend, but he also has firsthand knowledge of their skills after training Jiu-Jitsu with them recently. Both of the brothers are grappling prodigies and their MMA debuts have been hotly-anticipated for quite some time, with Kade making the leap first early in 2024. Tye has suffered a few injury setbacks around that same time period but now that he’s recovered from those issues, he’s planning on making his debut at some time this year.
He has some catching up to do too, as Kade finished his third fight in the first round just a few months ago, moving to 3-0 in less than 12 months. He’s steadily working his way up the rankings in ONE Championship and given their similar skill levels, it’s likely that Tye has the same success too. It’ll be tough for anyone to stop their rise to the top of the ONE lightweight and welterweight divisions, but there’s some truly elite fighters waiting for them there. Johnson knows exactly what it takes to do that though, as he’s a two-time ONE flyweight world champion and has more UFC title-defenses than anyone else.
ONE Championship spoke to Demetrious Johnson recently and shared with us his thoughts about the Ruotolo brothers entering MMA:
“I think for them, they’ve already covered the hardest part of mixed martial arts, and that’s closing the gap in the grappling and the Jiu-Jitsu. They’ve been doing it since they were kids, and stand up is easy to teach people. I don’t foresee anybody beating them anytime soon. Christian Lee versus Kade Ruotolo, that piques my interest. That gets me excited. Even though Christian Lee has way more experience in mixed martial arts, I feel Kade’s grappling and all his accolades… that’s the fight that needs to happen.”
