Count Christian “The Warrior” Lee among those who were dazzled by Kade and Tye Ruotolo when the 19-year-old phenoms debuted at ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot in May.
That evening, the former ONE Lightweight World Champion witnessed the twins step into the ONE Championship Circle for the very first time in a pair of high-profile submission grappling matches.
Kade then earned a dominant unanimous decision victory over Japanese legend Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki, while Tye shocked fans when he forced American star Garry “The Lion Killer” Tonon to tap from a D’arce choke after just 1:37.
Following those victories, the siblings expressed interest in transitioning to mixed martial arts.
But while Lee knows the teenagers are highly skilled in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, he also knows MMA is an entirely different animal.
He told ONE Championship:
“I was pretty impressed with the Ruotolo brothers, going into their grappling matches and taking out [their tough opponents]. One of the brothers submitted Garry Tonon and the other one [got] a dominating win against Shinya [Aoki]. I thought that was really impressive. They’re both great grapplers, Shinya and Garry.”
“But you know, it’s a different game, MMA and jiu-jitsu. The Ruotolo brothers are purely focused on grappling, and I feel like that’s maybe why they had a slight edge. But, of course, in an MMA fight, I think it would have gone very differently.”
Still, Lee sees plenty of MMA potential in the grappling dynamos.
While he doesn’t think success would come easy for the Ruotolos, he also believes they have what it takes to make a giant splash in the all-encompassing sport.
With that in mind, “The Warrior” says the young stars must fully turn their attention from BJJ to mixed martial arts. And if that happens, he believes they can truly shake things up in ONE Championship’s lightweight ranks.
The 24-year-old said:
“Definitely, they’re world-class grapplers. They’re very good. But it’s a very big transition going from grappling to MMA. I think right now they’re doing a great job in grappling, and if they did want to make that transition over to MMA, they need to commit a whole lot of time to just changing their game completely to add in the striking, to add in the MMA component.”
“I think if they made the decision and they started fighting [in MMA], they will do really well. They’ll probably make it up to the top of the division.” (ONEFC)
(Photo credits to: ASian MMA)