Kade Ruotolo will now be having his second professional MMA fight against Ahmed Muhtaba at ONE 169 on November 8th, 2024. He’s going to be continuing his career at ONE Championship for the foreseeable future, as he remains under contract with them. While it’s likely that he’ll still have some grappling matches seeing as he’s their reigning lightweight world champion, he’s been open about pursuing an MMA career in the past and it’s something that takes a lot of dedication. While he’s attempting to climb the ranks of their lightweight MMA division, he’ll almost certainly be taking fewer grappling matches as a result.
Ruotolo made his professional MMA debut back at ONE 167 just a few months ago and he put on an incredible performance that saw him win by submission in the very first round. His first opponent had a 2-1 record which is a pretty respectable challenge for a debuting fighter, but ONE Championship matchmakers are quickly increasing the difficulty level for him. His next opponent, Ahmed Mujtaba, has a 10-4 professional record and he’s been competing for ONE Championship since 2016. He has far more competitive experience in MMA than Ruotolo does and will be a very game opponent for the young fighter.
This fight represents the next stage of Ruotolo’s development as an MMA fighter and if he’s able to beat a veteran fighter then it’s likely that he’ll continue to face tougher tests next year. There’s several interesting fights that are waiting for Ruotolo in the promotion’s lightweight division and no doubt he’s eager to get to a title-shot as soon as possible. With that in mind, it’ll be interesting to see him take on more veteran fighters like Shinya Aoki or elite strikers like Christian Lee. Regardless of whether he beats Mujtaba or not, he’ll still have plenty of fans watching him as he embarks upon his MMA career.
ONE Championship announced the news that Kade Ruotolo was facing Ahmed Mujtaba for his second MMA fight at ONE 169 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
