Tye Ruotolo will now be putting his welterweight title on the line against Pawel Jaworski at ONE Fight Night 41 on March 13th, 2026. It’s going to be very tough test for Ruotolo, as Jaworski has quickly established himself as an elite competitor with some of the best leg-attacks in the world. It represents a chance for Ruotolo to re-establish his dominance over the division too, with Jaworski having just won the IBJJF No Gi World Championship 2025. It’s also a huge opportunity for Jaworski of course, as this will be the biggest match of his career so far with the most at stake.
Ruotolo has been the ONE Championship welterweight submission grappling world champion for over two years at this point, and he’s the only champion that the division has ever known. He won the inaugural title by beating Magomed Abdulkadirov back at ONE Fight Night 16 in 2023 and has managed to successfully defend it twice since then. His first title-defense was a submission win over Izaak Michell, and his second was a decision win over Dante Leon. It’s been a very successful run for Ruotolo and he hasn’t just been focusing on grappling either, as he now holds a 2-0 professional MMA record after his most recent win at ONE 173.
Jaworski on the other hand is actually pretty new to the highest level of professional grappling, but he’s had an incredible series of performances that have seen him break through very quickly. He’s registered wins over top competitors on some of the biggest shows in the world like Polaris and AIGA, and even appeared at CJI 2. He didn’t just win his first black belt world title last year either, he also had a perfect run to win gold in the under 88kg division of the ADCC European, Middle-Eastern, and African Trials. Now 2026 will be an even bigger year again for Jaworski and he’s starting it off with this title-fight against Ruotolo.
ONE Championship announced the news that Tye Ruotolo would defend his welterweight title against Pawel Jaworski at ONE Fight Night 41 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
