BJJ prodigy Tye Ruotolo has just had his first ONE Championship welterweight submission grappling title defense booked and he will be facing Izaak Michell at ONE 166 on March 1st, 2024. It’s a huge opportunity for the Australian competitor, as he’s never actually competed for ONE Championship before and is being given a title-shot on his debut. Both men are elite submission grappling competitors and in fact, they actually both competed in the 88kg division of ADCC 2022. They were on the same side of the bracket too, and would have met in the semi-finals had they both managed to make it past the first two rounds of the tournament.
That wasn’t meant to be though, as they both had opening round matches against seasoned ADCC veterans and lost. Ruotolo was able to return on the second day as a part of the absolute division though, and that was where he made a huge impact at the tournament. He went 2-1 and went home with a bronze medal despite facing huge size disadvantages in two of his matches against Felipe Pena and Nicholas Meregali. Although Michell wasn’t invited back to compete in the absolute division as well, he still managed to make an impact in his sole match as it was voted ‘Best Match’ of the tournament.
While Tye Ruotolo was already guaranteed an invite back for ADCC 2024 thanks to his bronze medal in the absolute division, Izaak Michell actually had to earn another chance at glory. He’s already done that though, as he won the 88kg division of the ADCC Asia and Oceania Trials 2023. That means that this title-fight might just be the first in a series of matches between these two entertaining competitors regardless of what happens at ONE 166. It’s unlikely that Michell gets an immediate rematch under ONE Championship if he loses and although Ruotolo might get that treatment, he only recently won the title at ONE Fight Night 16 and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him sent to the back of the queue. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how this match unfolds, regardless of whether it sparks a long-running rivalry or not.
ONE Championship announced the news that Tye Ruotolo was going to put his welterweight submission grappling title on the line against Izaak Michell at ONE 166 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
