Kade Ruotolo just made a huge impact at ONE 167 on June 7th, 2024, as he made his professional MMA debut and finished his opponent in the very first round. It’s been a long time coming, as Ruotolo has talked about transitioning to MMA for quite some time now. Thats why fans were understandably thrilled when ONE Championship announced that Ruotolo would finally be making his debut against Blake Cooper. It was expected that he would have a significant advantage on the ground over anyone that he faced, but not many would have predicted just how impressive the ADCC world champion would look in every area.
Ruotolo started out looking very comfortable standing, showing some good footwork and throwing some heavy kicks. Cooper pressed forward and Ruotolo slowed him down in the clinch, but Cooper was able to use his NAIA wrestling background to get double underhooks. Ruotolo landed some shots in the clinch and shut down any takedown offense, before scoring with a big head kick as they separated. Ruotolo went back to working his striking and even showed off some of his Muay Thai training, landing a knee from a brief double collar-tie control.
For the first few minutes of his professional MMA debut at ONE 167, Kade Ruotolo looked like a competent striker. That’s when he pressured forward and got double underhooks against the cage, quickly working his way to Cooper’s back and dragging him to the ground. He landed a few punches from there and it was only a matter of seconds before Ruotolo got both hooks in, quickly switching to the body triangle for more control. Ruotolo managed to snake his left arm in around Cooper’s neck at the same time, and it only took another second or two for him to secure the rear-naked choke and force the tap.
Kade Ruotolo moved to 1-0 with the first-round submission win in his MMA debut and he wasn’t the only elite BJJ competitor to step in the ring at ONE 167. Immediately after he got his hand raised, Mikey Musumeci came out and put on a grappling masterclass against Gabriel Sousa. Not only did this make for great viewing for any BJJ fans but it also set up both men for their next match perfectly. Both Musumeci and Ruotolo will be back in action very shortly, as they will be competing in a grappling match against one another for Ruotolo’s lightweight title at ONE 168.
ONE 167 Full Results
Tawanchai P.K. Saenchai defeats Jo Nattawut via Decision – Unanimous (Round 5, 3:00)
P.K. Saenchai retains the ONE featherweight Muay Thai world championship
Rodtang Jitmuangnon defeats Denis Puric via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Mikey Musumeci defeats Gabriel Sousa via Submission – Calf Slicer (Round 1, 3:07)
Kade Ruotolo defeats Blake Cooper via Submission – Rear-naked Choke (Round 1, 3:20)
Sitthichai Sitsongpeenong defeats Masaaki Noiri via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Denice Zamboanga defeats Noelle Grandjean via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 5:00)
Adrian Lee defeats Antonio Mammarella via Submission – Rear-naked Choke (Round 2, 1:56)
Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat defeats Johan Ghazali via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
Victoria Souza defeats Itsuki Hirata via Submission – Guillotine Choke (Round 1, 1:31)
Johan Estupinan defeats Zafer Sayik via Decision – Unanimous (Round 3, 3:00)
The full ONE 167 replay, including Kade Ruotolo winning his MMA debut in the first round, is available to watch on Amazon Prime or the promotion’s official YouTube channel:
