Tye Ruotolo by no means imagined he’d really make a sustainable residing competing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Rising up alongside his brother Kade Ruotolo, the 21-year-old twin all the time understood that grappling was a ardour moderately than a profession. Extremely promoted world champions would typically go house with out a lot of their pockets after defeating a number of the greatest grapplers on this planet in tournaments as prestigious as ADCC the place the grand prize is $10,000 and a fourth place end yields solely $1,000.
Occasions have modified recently, nevertheless, with promotions like ONE Championship opening grappling particular divisions and two-time ADCC silver medalist Craig Jones launching his personal event with a $1 million grand prize on the road. Jones particularly thumbed his nostril on the established ADCC event by working his upcoming invitational on the identical day in August and simply throughout city in Las Vegas.
Each Ruotolo brothers handed on invites to compete in ADCC to as an alternative be a part of Jones’ upcoming event. Tye, who really competes in a grappling match on Friday at ONE Combat Evening 23 from Bangkok, Thailand, acknowledged that cash performed an element in that call.
“My dad and mom put their lives into us with Kade and I rising up in jiu-jitsu and there was no cash in it in any respect,” Ruotolo instructed MMA Combating. “Little or no alternative. For you to have the ability to make a residing, you needed to go open up a fitness center and be dedicated to that fitness center and that’s the place you’d get your cash as an expert jiu-jitsu fighter. You couldn’t win the Worlds and these different competitions and help your self. It simply wasn’t potential.
“These days, I simply thank my dad and mom a lot for investing all the pieces that that they had. They gave all the pieces to us and it was nothing [in return]. Now we’ve come full circle, thank god, as a result of we now have a possibility to win one million {dollars} subsequent month. ONE Championship is paying us essentially the most we’ve ever been paid in our complete lives. ONE Championship arrange a championship contract, which is one thing that’s by no means been performed earlier than. There’s simply a lot extra money and alternative in jiu-jitsu that wasn’t there earlier than. It’s such good timing.”
Ruotolo couldn’t have imagined a greater time for his profession to essentially begin flourishing than proper now with the funding that promotions like ONE Championship have made in grappling.
He’s competing alongside fighters in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing with athletes from all 4 sports activities incomes the form of cash that enables them to only deal with that one explicit martial artwork.
“Tremendous completely satisfied to be wholesome sufficient and able to get the cash and the chance and the titles,” Ruotolo mentioned. “That’s what it’s all about. You’re keen on what you do, you by no means work a day in your life. I’m stoked to do what I really like.
“It’s rising so wildly. Every little thing that ONE’s doing, the platform that we now have to compete on, jiu-jitsu has by no means seen it earlier than. It’s groundbreaking. It’s such time to be a jiu-jitsu fighter.”
Whereas he has a grappling match on Friday and the Craig Jones Invitational scheduled in August, Ruotolo nonetheless has plans to finally cross over into MMA.
As a result of there simply wasn’t a method to earn a residing in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as not too long ago as only a few years in the past, most grapplers felt like MMA was actually the one avenue out there to them to become profitable. That’s not the case however Ruotolo all the time deliberate on preventing however now the timing is true to make that transfer.
“Kade and I, we now have extra of an aggressive type for jiu-jitsu,” Ruotolo defined. “So there’s typically occasions we’re on prime and our opponents are simply stalling and Kade says it on a regular basis — ‘I want I may simply hit him proper now, it might be means simpler!.’ I instructed him, you’ll get to quickly!”
Kade made a profitable MMA debut in June, though he’s additionally going again to grappling for that very same Craig Jones Invitational in addition to a super-match scheduled in opposition to Mikey Musumeci in September when ONE Championship returns to america.
Tye has each intention of doing the identical as his brother and getting his first battle performed earlier than 2024 is over.
“I don’t have something in stone however for positive by the tip of the yr, I wish to make my debut it doesn’t matter what,” Ruotolo mentioned about preventing. “Watching my brother battle received me so fired up. I used to be telling the boys I wish to do a Muay Thai battle after this! I’m able to go! Not going to begin with Muay Thai, I’m going to begin with MMA first and it will likely be by the tip of the yr.”
