Tye
Ruotolo claims to have faced health issues going into his bout
against Jozef Chen
at
ONE on Prime Video 23.
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Ruotolo took on the 19-year-old prodigy in a submission grappling
bout at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium on Firday. While Ruotolo
managed to maintain his undefeated record with a unanimous decision
win, the South African gave him a run for his money.
Although Ruotolo isn’t proud of his performance, he claims to have
had a bad camp to blame for it. However, the 21-year-old is happy
to have roped in the decision victory even on his “worst day.”
“For sure, I could have performed a lot better,” Ruotolo said at
the post-fight press conference. “It’s not a performance that I’m
very proud of. I didn’t have the best camp, and I didn’t feel the
best way going through the fight — unless it’s the fact that I won
even on my worst day. It makes me happy. But that’s not a
performance that I like to have, especially in a place like
Lumpinee. I have so much respect for the people in the audience and
the stadium, so I always do my best to give a good show.”
Ruotolo claims to have battled sickness and issues with his neck
all throughout camp. While a submission win evaded him this time,
Ruotolo vowed to work on all his shortcomings and return
stronger.
“I really can just sit here and make a bunch of excuses,” he said.
“But just within my camp, I was sick for most of it. And even
before the fight, I really was feeling a bit off. I’ve been going
through a couple little neck things. It has kind of been affecting
a little bit of my nerve, the vagus nerve. I really wasn’t feeling
great going into the match, but even on all my worst days, I just
gotta man up and get it done, and that’s what I did. I’m stoked to
get it done, and in my next performance, I will be better. I’m
going to go home, and get in front of everything that would prevent
me from having a great performance in my next one. I’ll perform how
I’m supposed to.”
Ruotolo doubled down on his callout of former opponent Nicholas
Meregali, who he believes is avoiding a potential matchup. Ruotolo
lost to Meregali in the semifinals of the Absolute Division at the
ADCC 2022 world championships and has since been rallying for a
rematch.
“We’ve been trying to get Meregali for a long time,” Ruotolo said.
“I guess he’s very difficult to work with. I don’t know, but I just
think he doesn’t really want to fight, to be honest with you. The
last time we fought, I had multiple torn ligaments in my knee. He
used to be 50 pounds heavier and I still alpha-checked him. To be
honest, he was still backing up at the end of the fight, you know.
So that’s one that I really want to get back. If not Meregali, it
doesn’t really matter, whoever ONE feels like they want to put in
front of me next. I’m ready for anything.”