“I’ve never been like that” - Kade Ruotolo slams Tommy Langaker’s passive style of fighting

Kade Ruotolo has always put a premium on putting on the best and most exciting submission grappling matches possible, and he’d even call out anyone who disagrees with that philosophy.

The American star is undoubtedly one of the most exciting fighters in ONE Championship, and he recently called out Tommy Langaker for having the opposite philosophy.

Ruotolo defended the ONE lightweight submission grappling world title against Langaker at ONE Fight Night 11, and he believed the Norwegian star wasn’t as aggressive as he was during the contest.

In an interview with ONE Championship, the 21-year-old said Langaker spent more time complaining to the referee than going into the offensive.

Kade Ruotolo said:

“[Langaker] just kind of stays on his back and waits for his opponent to engage, and just clasp on to the legs. And if he doesn’t get that, then he’s kind of like complaining and asking around. And, you know, I’ve never been like that once in my life.”

Although Langaker played off the defensive, the match was still one of Ruotolo’s most engaging fights in ONE Championship. Kade Ruotolo eventually took the unanimous decision win, but the match left much to be desired.

The two will run it back this Sunday, January 28, in the co-main event of ONE 165: Superlek vs. Takeru at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

ONE 165 marks the return of ONE Championship’s numbered events and is available on pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.

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Kade Ruotolo shares intensity of his training with twin brother Tye

While some fighters searched for the perfect gym to train at, Kade Ruotolo didn’t look far to find his perfect training partner.

Growing up, Kade always rolled with his brother Tye and the twins practically dominated the Brazilian jiu-jitsu scene at every stage of their career.

In an interview on The Fighter and The Kid podcast, Kade said he and his twin brother always trained like they were fighting each other:

“We roll with each other as we would never roll with other people, you know what I mean? Like, it gets to a new level of intensity that we could never like feel good about doing that to someone else, you know what I mean? But it's our brother so we could slap you know and it's all good out.”

Kade was the first to capture ONE gold when he became the ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion in October 2022.

Tye, meanwhile, got his belt in November 2023 when he beat Magomed Abdulkadirov for the ONE welterweight submission grappling world championship.

Watch the brothers' entire interview below: