Watch Kade Ruotolo improve his MMA record to 3-0 with a victory over Nicolas Vigna on February 20, 2025, at ONE 171: Qatar.
Kade Ruotolo is continuing to dominate in his still-young professional MMA career.
On Thursday, February 20, at ONE 171: Qatar, the decorated BJJ black belt squared off with undefeated Argentinian Nicolas Vigna, and he needed just over three minutes to secure an arm-triangle choke finish, improving his MMA record to 3-0.
Watch video of Kade Ruotolo vs. Nicolas Vigna below.
Ruotolo opened up aggressively, landing a head kick in the first few seconds before jumping into a leg entanglement and quickly attacking a heel hook. Vigna defended the leg lock but would spend the next couple of minutes defending Ruotolo’s onslaught of submission attacks.
The pair briefly returned to their feet, only for Ruotolo to score a clean body-lock takedown and move directly to the mount. From there, the Californian transitioned to the back and spent about one minute looking for the choke. Vigna again defended the submission threats but soon found himself in a deep arm-triangle choke.
Ruotolo squeezed on the choke and earned the tap at 3:04 into the fight, handing Vigna the first defeat of his professional career.
Ruotolo has now scored three straight first-round submission wins in as many MMA fights, all of which have taken place in ONE Championship.
As the organization’s reigning lightweight submission grappling world champion, Ruotolo could soon return to grappling to defend his belt. However, in his post-fight interview, he indicated that, while he does expect to defend his title soon, he hopes to return to MMA as quickly as possible.
“I wanna get back in here as soon as possible and keep in the first round again,” he said.
The youngest-ever ADCC world champion and the reigning 80kg CJI champion, Ruotolo is regarded by many as one of, if not the best, pound-for-pound no-gi submission grappler in the world today. In addition to boasting victories over the likes of Levi Jones-Leary, Andrew Tackett, and Matheus Diniz, Ruotolo owns wins against Tommy Langaker, Francisco Lo, and Matheus Gabriel in ONE Championship.
