ONE Championship: Tye Ruotolo wants ‘last boss’ Gordon Ryan but ‘he’d rather sit behind keyboard and talk’
- Ruotolo will meet MMA champ Reinier de Ridder in submission grappling bout at ONE Fight Night 10 on Friday in Denver, Colorado
- The 20-year-old is aiming for matches with Nicholas Meregali and Ryan thereafter, and then plans to go ‘straight to MMA’
ONE Championship submission grappling star Tye Ruotolo has unfinished business with Gordon Ryan.
The two Brazilian jiu jitsu black belts, both Americans, have been linked to a bout for some time, but have yet to meet on the mats. Ruotolo, 20, is hoping that will finally soon – once he has packed on enough muscle to compete with his heavier rival.
“My goal in jiu jitsu is to be the best of all time, no matter what, no matter the size of my opponent, and to do that naturally without steroids,” Ruotolo told the Post in Denver, Colorado on Monday. “It might take a little longer, getting bigger, putting on more muscle, but that’s my plan: to take Gordon out.”
Ruotolo is in Denver for a grappling match with ONE middleweight MMA champ and fellow BJJ black belt Reinier De Ridder – who is also expected to be the larger, stronger man in their match-up.
He sees the bout with De Ridder, who has trained with Ryan, as a surmountable challenge – the reason he asked for the match-up after submitting Marat Gafurov last December. He also sees it as a good opportunity to get accustomed to fighting bigger opponents.
“I wouldn’t have called him out if I wasn’t pretty confident in the match,” he said. “He’s got good jiu jitsu. He’s a decorated double champ in MMA.
“I’ve got an amazing strength coach with me right now, my body’s feeling the best its ever felt, and my jiu jitsu, my technique,” he added. “It’s hard to bulk and feel agile, but that’s part of my game, so we’ve keeping the balance and it’s been working really well.
“I’m excited to test what we’ve been working on with Reinier, someone a bit bigger.”
Ruotolo does not believe a win over De Ridder will be enough to set up a super fight with Ryan, who is considered one of the top grapplers on Earth.
However, he is hoping a victory over the Dutch MMA champion will launch him into a match with Ryan’s training partner Nicholas Meregali, a man he lost a decision to at the 2022 ADCC World Championship in Las Vegas.
“I’m going to have to meet Meregali first,” he said. “He’s kind of the one guy under Gordon that I want to take out. If I can get past Reinier, we’re going to Meregali and then Gordon.
“Gordon will be the last boss.”
Ryan ‘felt really bad’ leaving ONE, open to grappling Ruotolos
Ryan was previously under contract with ONE, but ultimately left the promotion without partaking in a single bout under its banner.
He is now under contract with FloSports, which will create some logistical challenges for a future fight with Ruotolo, but the ONE fighter is hopeful it will still happen.
“I think he will [accept the match],” he said. “I gave him the opportunity and he didn’t – so we’ll see. I think he’d rather sit behind the keyboard and talk a lot of s***.”
“When he’s ready to take the match, I’m here.”
Victories over De Ridder, Meregali and Ryan are the last items on Ruotolo’s to-do list as far as submission grappling career is concerned, but that is not where his plans end.
His hope is that, after beating his three rivals, he will be in a position to transition “straight to MMA” under the ONE banner.
“That’s a big goal of mine, to become the best in MMA too,” he said. “That’s going to take some time. It’s a whole other life, a whole other route. I for sure want to do that in ONE.”
It will be difficult for Ruotolo to achieve all of his goals in ONE – particularly as he and his brother Kade work to open their own gym in Costa Rica – but he believes he can make it all happen before the end of 2023.
“I want to make this all happen this year,” he said.
