Kade Ruotolo will now finally be making his professional MMA debut against Blake Cooper at ONE 167 on June 7th, 2024. Although Ruotolo is the youngest ADCC world champion in the history of the sport, there’s still a lot of questions surrounding the future of his MMA career. There have been many elite grapplers who have made the transition to MMA and the results have been mixed to say the least. Some fighters have achieved incredible levels of success like Fabricio Werdum or Demian Maia, and others like Dillon Danis or AJ Agazarm have left the sport after a handful of fights.
A professional MMA career isn’t something that Kade Ruotolo is taking lightly though, as he’s been planning on making this move for years at this point. Although his focus has obviously been on reaching the highest level of professional grappling since he was a small child, he’s also been working on his striking with some fantastic coaches recently. All of this points to the expectation that Ruotolo should be able to put on a good performance when he makes his debut and ONE Championship have picked a great opponent to give him the appropriate level of challenge too.
Blake Cooper has been competing in MMA since 2019, winning three fights on the amateur circuit and eventually turning professional in 2022. He made his professional debut at a Cage Warriors event and submitted his opponent in the first round, before winning his second fight by knockout in the first round. That’s what drew the attention of ONE Championship, and Cooper made his promotional debut at ONE Fight Night 14. Although he wasn’t successful at that event, his 2-1 professional record and solid striking make him the ideal opponent for Ruotolo in his debut fight.
ONE Championship announced the news that Kade Ruotolo would be making his professional MMA debut at ONE 167 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
