ONE Championship have just announced their biggest grappling match to date, as Mikey Musumeci will be moving up several weight classes to challenge Kade Ruotolo for the lightweight title at ONE 168 on September 6th, 2024. Musumeci will be attempting to become the promotion’s very first person to win submission grappling titles in more than one weight class, and he’s taking on a huge challenge in order to do so. He has been the reigning flyweight world champion since the end of 2022, but he’s decided to skip over both the bantamweight and featherweight divisions in order to face one of the toughest tests of his career so far.
Musumeci is no stranger to moving up in weight though, and in his 6 ONE Championship matches he’s actually faced bigger opponents twice. The first time was actually in his promotional debut against Masakazu Imanari which he won by submission and after spending his next 4 matches winning and defending the promotion’s flyweight, he moved up in weight once again. This was to face another Japanese MMA and grappling legend, and he also won that match against Shinya Aoki by submission too. Although that was his last match at the time of writing, he will actually have had another one by the time he faces Ruotolo as he is currently booked to compete against Gabriel Sousa in a bantamweight match at ONE 167.
Just like Mikey Musumeci, Kade Ruotolo also has a perfect 6-0 record at ONE Championship that dates all the way back to 2022. Ruotolo won the lightweight title by submitting Sambo veteran Uali Kurzhev and also like Musumeci, he has since defended the title three times. He was most recently seen moving up in weight himself, as he faced Francisco Lo in a catchweight match and submitted him with an arm-in rear-naked choke. The similarities don’t end there either, as Ruotolo also has another battle ahead of him before he meets Musumeci at ONE 168. There’s one slight difference though, as he will actually be making his professional MMA debut against Blake Cooper when he fights at ONE 167.
There are so many questions going into this match, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Musumeci can overcome the size advantage and whether Ruotolo is able to deal with his legendary guard. The match between Mikey Musumeci and Kade Ruotolo will be a huge moment for grappling fans around the world and there’s no doubt that many of them will be tuning in to watch it go down live at ONE 168. American fans will have an advantage though, because the event will be happening in The Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado and tickets are on sale now.
