Kade Ruotolo has just had his third professional MMA fight booked, and he’ll be returning to the cage at ONE 171 on February 20th, 2025. The elite grappler had been talking about making the transition to MMA since as much as 3 years ago, when he and his brother Tye first signed with ONE Championship. For a while it seemed as though the day might never come that fans would get to see him in an MMA fight, but since a flawless debut at ONE 167 he’s gone full steam ahead on his career. Not only has he been eager to get more fights under his belt, but he’s also been facing tougher opponents each time too.
His debut opponent, Blake Cooper, had a 2-1 professional record at the time and Ruotolo submitted him in the vert first round. He then submitted Ahmed Mujtaba in the first round at ONE 169, and he did it even quicker than in his first fight. Mujtaba was a veteran fighter with a 10-4 record and although his next opponent is less experienced, he does hold a flawless record just like Ruotolo. Nicolas Vigna is the man who will be standing opposite Kade Ruotolo at ONE 171 and he currently holds a 7-0 professional record with all of his fights ending in a finish, and only one making it to the second round.
Vigna is also a skilled grappler and 4 of his finishes have come by way of submission, but obviously Ruotolo is in a completely different league. Ruotolo became the youngest champion in history at ADCC 2022 and although he’s been at the highest level for quite some time now, last year marked the biggest achievement of his career to date. He competed in the most stacked tournament bracket ever seen at the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational and he beat all four opponents to win the million-dollar prize. It’ll be interesting to see how Ruotolo fares against Vigna but if he’s able to continue his dominant run then he won’t be too far from a ONE Championship title-shot.
ONE Championship announced the news that Kade Ruotolo would be fighting Nicolas Vigna at ONE 171 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
