Kade Ruotolo has just announced that he has suffered an injury and has cancelled his upcoming match against Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168 on September 6th, 2024. It’s unfortunate news for any fans waiting for the event and for ONE Championship themselves, as this match was supposed to be the co-main event for that card. The announcement has come directly from Ruotolo himself, and neither Musumeci nor the promotion have actually commented on the situation yet. There’s no news on whether Musumeci will still be competing at the event against a late-replacement competitor, or if the match will be scrapped altogeher and rebooked at a later date.
The match was first announced several months ago, and both men have been very busy in between then and now. They actually competed at the same event in fact, with Ruotolo going first and winning his professional MMA debut by submission in the very first round. Musumeci stepped into the ring in the very next match of the ONE 167 card, and he moved up in weight to submit Gabriel Sousa in a superb performance. Although that was the last time that Musumeci competed prior to this proposed match, Ruotolo has been even more active.
He defeated four men across one weekend to win the under 80kg division at the Craig Jones Invitational just a few weeks ago, but it seems like that run may have come at a cost. A tournament of that magnitude and a title-defense against Mikey Musumeci obviously take a lot of preparation and whether he suffered the injury in training or during one of those matches, it’s no surprise that the last few months have taken their toll on Kade Ruotolo. There’s still plenty of time left in the year for him too so depending on how severe the injury is, this might not even be the last time fans see him in action in 2024.
Kade Ruotolo announced the news that he had suffered an injury and his match against Mikey Musumeci at ONE 168 was cancelled in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
