Tye Ruotolo left Bangkok intact after a tough third defense at ONE Fight Night 41: Sinsamut vs. Jarvis on Prime Video last Friday (March 13) at the legendary Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.
The 23-year-old American superstar made his intentions known to everyone from the opening bell. The representative of jiu-jitsu roots jumped from the ropes and impaled Pawel Jaworski with a thunderous pro-wrestling-style spear before pursuing a single leg lock or testing guards.
The move has been months in the making. In fact, he had already tested the play in the same venue using his twin brother, ONE lightweight submission wrestling world champion Kade Ruotolo, as a human crash test dummy before the opportunity to compete arose.
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When the moment came, he didn’t hesitate at all.
Ruotolo told onefc.com:
“I just sent it to the ropes and it was a hard move to defend. My opponent didn’t even try to defend. He looked like a deer in the headlights. It worked great.
“I was excited. It felt good. At one point, I felt like I was pretty level in the air. So I felt like there was definitely some good momentum, some good inertia. It was definitely fun.”
However, the theatrical performance is just the beginning. The real test begins once the fight gets into the grappling exchanges the California native prepared for in training camp.
Opponent – IBJJF No-Gi World Champion Jaworski immediately established his signature threat in his debut. The Polish athlete’s leg lock technique, agility and handstands presented the defending champion with a tougher problem than expected.
He shared:
“I know it’s definitely going to be a challenge, especially in 10 minutes. It’s going to be tough to get past these guys and get past their defense.
“It can be very difficult, but that’s my job, is to learn how to overcome it, you know? It would be great if I could overcome it [Jaworski’s leg locks from guard] More than I did today. “
Jaworski could be a tough nut to crack, even making the catch with less than two minutes to go. However, the reigning king wasted no time in reacting, securing his second catch with a deep choke with 30 seconds remaining.
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Rutolo then took the Polish challenger into the deep end with a triangle choke as time expired. When the scoring was completed, all three judges agreed that the American player had done enough to retain his gold medal. His submission record improved to 37-12, and the belt still hangs around his shoulders.
When asked to measure the results of his two previous defenses, Rutolo, who got off to a perfect 2-0 start in MMA in the second half of 2025 by utilizing the “genius” Adrian Lee and the “great mentor” Shozo Isojima, was not resting on his laurels:
“Of course, it always feels good to come home with a belt. I feel a little rusty in there, to say the least. I’m usually three [or] Four steps ahead of my opponent.
“This time, I just felt a little slower than usual. A little rusty, and I think it was just a lack of jiu-jitsu training and being too focused on MMA.”
Back to the lab – back to the chase
Tye Ruotolo’s world title reign has been defined by one simple principle: control everything, threaten at every turn, and never let his opponent breathe.
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It’s a standard the ONE Welterweight Submission Wrestling World Champion upholds in his promotions and one he upholds every time he steps onto a global stage.
By his own measure, he fell short of that goal Friday:
“It’s not over the top, I’d say it’s a little on the low side. But yeah, it’s all good. It’s part of the process. It’s hard to make it perfect every time you go out there.
“I knew this would spark my passion again. I’m going to go back to the lab with my brother and work on all this stuff that we’ve been lagging on.”
Rutolo was clearly fired up.
In his post-fight appeal, Rutolo set his sights on the Lee family—not just a rematch with Adrian Lee, but a challenge to reigning two-division ONE MMA World Champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee—in a dream family-versus-family clash on the global stage.
The 23-year-old added:
“I’m not thinking about special rules. I don’t know if they’re going to be open to it. I don’t think they’re going to be open to it, but I mean for MMA — [us against] Li’s. I think Adrian called me out after his last game, I saw that somewhere.
“So I just thought, man, instead of fighting Adrian again, it would be disgusting if we faced Team Rutoros and Team Lee on one card. That would be really fun.”
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