Jiu-jitsu phenom Kade Ruotolo is now 3-0 as a professional MMA fighter after making short work of Nicolas Vigna in a 175-pound catchweight bout in the early portion of ONE 171 in Qatar on Thursday.
Vigna was 7-0 with four submissions and a 100 percent finishing rate going into his ONE Championship debut, but facing a decorate grappler in Ruotolo proved to be took much for the Argentinian fighter.
Ruotolo, the current ONE grappling champion with past title wins at ADCC, CJI and WNO, blasted Vigna with a head kick early and immediately forced it to the ground with a leg lock attempt. Vigna survived the attack, but saw Ruotolo take his back and work on a rear-naked choke before improving to the mount and land vicious elbows to create opening for the arm-triangle choke.
Watch the sequence below.
Ruotolo was awarded extra $50,000 in bonus for his performance in Catar, and said his plan is to continue competing in the sport despite holding the ONE grappling belt.
“I have to be honest guys,” Ruotolo said following the victory. “I definitely want to defend my grappling title here, I got the belt and I definitely need to defend it, but if I’m being 100% honest, MMA is in my heart 100 percent. And if it’s what I want, it’s definitely another MMA fight. I want to get back in there as soon as possible and keep it in the first round again.”
