ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion Kade Ruotolo is in the final stages of preparation for his first-ever professional MMA fight, and he’s been laser-focused on taking any advice he can get.

On Friday, June 7, the American phenom will take on Blake Cooper in a lightweight clash at ONE 167: Tawanchai vs. Nattawut II inside the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

Kade Ruotolo learns valuable lessons from MMA legend Erik Paulson

As always, he’ll be representing his Atos Academy stable, but Ruotolo also recently expanded his training camp to work with Tyler Wombles of Classic Fight Team and Eric Paulson at Combat Submission Wrestling.

The latter is one of MMA’s earliest stars, and he is now an internationally respected coach. But the lightweight submission grappling king outlined how he was initially unsure of Paulson’s approach in a recent interview with ONE.

“The first time I ever worked with Erik Paulson, we went to go over leg locks, right? And I’m thinking, man, in the most respectful way possible, ‘it’s a new age,’” he said.

“My brother and I, we’re always very open-minded, but when it came to leg lock talk, I’m like, ‘man, there’s these leg lock specialists nowadays, and the defense and everything…’”

Ruotolo’s doubts about Paulson came from the fact that he and his brother, ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion Tye Ruotolo, are known for their leg lock techniques.

As such, the 21-year-old naturally thought he knew everything there was to know. But, by remaining curious, he learned new approaches that catered more toward MMA.

“He went and showed me three techniques that I had never seen before that blew my mind, that I’ve been using in training till now,” Ruotolo shared. 

“He really is a true legend. He’s got so many techniques up in his mind. And that’s why it’s so important to keep an open mind in jiu-jitsu because it can get blown.”

Ruotolo explains about his catch wrestling techniques

The California native has incorporated these catch wrestling techniques into his quickly evolving MMA arsenal.

However, he also believes that they could be the next step for submission grappling, and he fully expects to see some of them at the prestigious ADCC World Championships later this year.

“It’s almost like catch wrestling is what we’re starting to see it lean towards at ADCC. You used to get away with being a specialist, being a guard player, this or that, but every ADCC, we see more and more how important wrestling is becoming,” Ruotolo said.

“If you don’t have good wrestling, it could be your demise, right? Catch wrestling is a really good way to train for a format like ADCC, where you’re really focused on wrestling but still adding your submissions.”