Tye Ruotolo will now be making his professional MMA debut against fellow young prodigy Adrian Lee at ONE Fight Night 35 on September 5th, 2025. It’s the next step in the elite BJJ competitor’s career, and it’s one that he’s been planning on making for quite some time. Both Tye and Kade Ruotolo have had an MMA career in their sights for several years and that was part of the reason they signed with ONE Championship too. Although they’ve both been open about their desire to compete in MMA right from the start, their plans have been derailed time and time again.
Kade actually made his debut just a little over a year ago and his record currently stands at a perfect 3-0, but Tye wasn’t able to follow in his footsteps as soon as he would’ve liked. That’s because he suffered a knee injury during the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational and was sidelined for the rest of the year while he recovered. He’s already been able to get back in action though, as he defended his welterweight submission grappling title against Dante Leon at ONE Fight Night 31. With a successful return under his belt, it seems as though Tye is now ready to make the leap over to MMA.
Tye Ruotolo actually mentioned plans to make his MMA debut after defending his belt at the time, but not many people would have predicted that his first opponent would be Adrian Lee. He’s just 19 years old but he already has 3 professional fights on his record and he’s finished every single one of them. He’s also a member of MMA royalty as the younger brother of former world champion Angela Lee and reigning two-division world champion Christian Lee. He’s a very tough opponent for Ruotolo in his first fight, but a win here will see him skyrocket up the ONE lightweight MMA rankings.
ONE Championship announced the news that Tye Ruotolo would be making his MMA debut against Adrian Lee at ONE Fight Night 35 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
