Kade Ruotolobelieves that his longtime rival, Gordon Ryan, would never agree to fight him in mixed martial arts . Ruotolo recently made his professional MMA debut at ONE 167 on Prime Video, where he submitted compatriot Blake Cooper in the first round, showcasing his striking abilities as well.
In a guest appearance on the Beasts with Brains podcast, Ruotolo expressed his confidence in his abilities, saying, “Gordon is great at what he does, he’s one of the best in the world. I think if you were to put it on a scale of 10, he’s really confident in the jiu-jitsu scene. But I promise you, if we wanted to run a MMA match or whatever the case may be, he wouldn’t accept it. Even a combat jiu-jitsu match, he wouldn’t accept it. I know for a fact. He likes to act tough in the jiu-jitsu scene, he’s twice my size, but I guarantee you he wouldn’t take any real match with me.”
Ruotolo and his twin brother, Tye Ruotolo, the ONE welterweight submission grappling king, have had a longstanding feud with Ryan. The origin of this beef can be traced back to a “goofy comment” made by Ryan, according to Kade Ruotolo.
“I feel like it’s been at the same place where it’s been. For me, we never really had like beef with Gordon until it was one of those comments, it was such a goofy comment, it was like ‘If I wasn’t on ster0ids or whatever performance enhancement dr*gs, I’d still be able to beat the Ruotolos.’ And I literally burst out laughing when I heard it. So that was when we had to respond. I couldn’t bite my tongue anymore,” Ruotolo explained.
The Ruotolo brothers take great pride in being natural athletes and are committed to dominating their sport without the use of PEDs, which are prevalent in jiu-jitsu. Ryan, on the other hand, has openly admitted to using PEDs, a stance that goes against everything the Ruotolos stand for.
