Kade Ruotolo has just revealed the pay involved in his exclusive ONE Championship contract, and it’s even bigger than many grappling fans would have guessed. Ever since they first signed with the promotion, both of the Ruotolo brothers have actually been among the biggest stars in their submission grappling divisions. Both Kade and Tye Ruotolo have maintained perfect records since competing there and they have also both become champions as well. Kade actually became a champion first in the lightweight division back in 2022, but his Tye followed in his footsteps just a little over a year later by winning the welterweight belt.
It wasn’t just the potential for new titles that attracted the brothers to ONE Championship though, as the promotion is also known for being particularly high-paying. For the first time ever, Kade Ruotolo sat down with Raphaella Amorim and revealed exactly how much pay he is receiving from ONE Championship:
“We signed to ONE Championship because financially, we’re making upwards of $100,000 every fight you know? So why go fight for less money on a different promotion when you could come to ONE Championship and make hundreds of thousands of dollars?”
That’s far more than other promotions are willing to pay elite grapplers, but that kind of pay does come at a price. ONE Championship famously use exclusive contracts that ensure that their talent cannot compete for other promotions while they still form part of the roster. Ruotolo did compete outside ONE Championship recently though, as he actually won the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational. There was a lot of pay involved there too though, as Ruotolo won a million dollars in just one weekend. He also shared some insight into how he was able to negotiate his way around his exclusive contract in order to compete at the Craig Jones Invitational in the first place:
“We got the clearance from ONE Championship. It was hard, I was arguing with Chatri (Sityodtong) you know? But we got the clearance to come compete here for CJI so it was a no brainer.”
Although he’s fresh off winning four matches with some of the best grapplers in the world across just two days, Ruotolo isn’t taking any time off. He will be straight back into training alongside his brother and coaches in order to prepare for his next title-defense. Kade Ruotolo will now be defending his ONE Championship lightweight title against Mikey Musumeci in the promotion’s very first champion vs champion match on September 6th, 2024.
The full interview with Kade Ruotolo where he reveals the pay he receives from ONE Championship was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Raphaella Amorim:
