The Ruotolo Brothers

Tye Ruotolo will fight for his first MMA title tomorrow at 630AM ET in Lumpinee Stadium. Here that we’re going to talk about what makes him and his brother special.

There’s an old idea in fighting that argues tha the best way to be a fighter is to have a brother. If you grow up getting beat up you’ll probably be able to defend yourself. At least you’ll be tough.

I’m not sure how you would ever prove this idea scientifically, but there seems to be a trend that transcends styles.

Jon Jones? Middle brother of two NFL greats.

Canelo Alvarez? Youngest of eight siblings.

Buvaisar and Adam Satiev? Combined they have more World Championship Gold Medals than losses on their Wikipedia page.

Today there are brothers that are preparing to write their names next to the all time great ones above. Tye and Kade Ruotolo. Twins born in Hawaii that grew up doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Southern California.

When I say grew up doing BJJ I mean it. There is footage of the Ruotolos hitting d’arce chokes in competition at seven years old. And they’re both ultra competitive. They even faced each other in the finals of the IBJJF’s World Championships at Brown Belt! At black belt Tye won the World Championships while Kade became the youngest person to ever win the ADCC World Championships and won CJI 1. Some people think he was half of the best match ever against Andrew Tackett.

The Ruotolos have since moved on Brazilian jiu-jitsu and have surrounded themselves with interesting athletes and coaches. They’ve been spotted training with UFC fighters Marlon “Chito” Vera and Payton Talbot, and they get coached by boxing trainer Jason Parillo as well as Josh Barnett’s longtime coach Erik Paulson. Thus far the training is paying off. Just look at how well both of their careers’ started.

And here we see Tye’s debut submission win.

Tye’s opponent above is particularly relevant today. He will be fighting Adrian’s older brother, Christian for ONE Championship’s 170 pound belt tomorrow.

Before that fight I want to talk about what makes these men unique and the weekend that jumpstarted their reign as adult competitors.

The Ruotolos have a body built for choking. They are long and scramble well so they snatch various chokes from odd angles. They are so good at unorthodox chokes they pioneered a submission now known as a ruotolotine. It’s effectively an arm-in rear naked choke on the back.

And on this exact same fight card where Ruotolo choked out Lo, Tye Ruotolo caught a ruotolotine on Izaak Michell a few fights later! If you want to read more about other weird head and arm chokes click here.

Before ONE, CJI, and ADCC the twins took out two brackets in one of grappling’s biggest weekends ever. During this run they both showed some specific techniques that will help their game transition smoothly to MMA.

The Ruotolo brothers have been competing against men since they were boys. They competed at their first ADCC World Championships in 2019 when they were only 16.

In 2021 the Ruotolos were both invited to participate in FloGrappling’s WNO Championship tournament. This was a two day event with grappling stars across several weight classes. Kaynan Duarte, Mica Galvao, William Tackett, and Roberto Jimenez were just some of the names who competed and none of them won their division! Stacked doesn’t start to say how good the weekend was.

I was fortunate enough to work the event as a judge and it quickly became one of the most entertaining events I’ve ever been at. Aside from the high level jiujitsu there we just tons of weirdos making the rounds. No shit, Murillo Santana told The Info Wars Incel Alex Jones to suck his dick while Santana was coaching Maysa Bastos to win her division.

But before anything even thought about fellating anyone else Kade elected to go to 155 pounds for this tournament so we’ll start with him.