Kade Ruotolo

Kade Ruotolo was born on January 22, 2003, on the island of Maui, Hawaii, before his family relocated to Huntington Beach, California. He and his identical twin brother, Tye Ruotolo, began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at around three years old after their father brought them to their first class, and the two grew up training and competing together, becoming one of the most closely followed sibling duos in the sport's history. Kade spent his early competitive years at Art of Jiu-Jitsu (AOJ) under Guilherme and Rafael Mendes before the brothers moved to Atos Jiu-Jitsu in San Diego in 2017 to train under André Galvão, one of the sport's most successful competitors and coaches.

As a colored belt, Ruotolo was dominant, winning IBJJF World, Pan American, and European Open titles at multiple belt levels, culminating in a memorable 2021 IBJJF World Championship brown belt final against his own brother, Tye, at lightweight. He was promoted to black belt by Galvão in December 2021, and what followed was one of the most explosive rookie seasons black belt grappling has ever seen. At the 2022 ADCC World Championship, competing in the 77kg division, Ruotolo submitted every opponent he faced, capping the run with a heel hook finish of Mica Galvão in the final to become, at 19 years old, the youngest ADCC World Champion in the event's history — a 100% finishing rate across an entire ADCC bracket that remains one of the standout individual performances in the tournament's history.

Ruotolo's ADCC gold immediately opened the door to ONE Championship, and just months later, in October 2022, he submitted Russia's Uali Kurzhev to become the inaugural ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion. He has defended that title multiple times since, including twice against Norway's Tommy Langaker, and has continued to headline ONE's submission grappling cards as one of the promotion's signature attractions. In 2024 he expanded into professional mixed martial arts under ONE's banner, coached by Erik Paulson at Combat Submission Wrestling, debuting against Blake Cooper and building an undefeated MMA record combining both submission and knockout finishes. That same year he also won the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational at -80kg, taking home a $1,000,000 grand prize, and was named ONE Championship's Fighter of the Year (shared with Muay Thai's Superlek Kiatmuu9).

Ruotolo's style is built around constant forward pressure, scrambling exchanges, and a submission game heavily weighted toward chokes — darce chokes account for roughly half of his recorded finishes — combined with a willingness to hunt leg locks when the position presents itself, as shown in his ADCC final. Alongside his brother Tye, who has built an equally decorated career, Kade Ruotolo has become one of the faces of a new generation of grapplers who moved seamlessly from the traditional IBJJF pathway into no-gi superfights, ADCC, and now mixed martial arts, helping drive submission grappling's growing crossover into mainstream combat sports audiences.

Fast, forward-pressing submission grappler known for scrambles, guillotines and darce chokes, and an aggressive finishing rate that carried over into MMA