Lionel Messi’s Bodyguard Gets A Crash Course In Grappling From ONE World Champions Tye And Kade Ruotolo
Lionel Messi’s bodyguard just picked up a new trick from ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion Kade Ruotolo, and he wasted no time putting it to good use.
The meeting happened by chance in Los Angeles, California, where a mutual sponsor event put Kade and his twin brother, reigning ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion Tye Ruotolo, in the same room as Yassine Cheuko, the French-Tunisian security professional who rarely leaves the soccer player’s side.
Kade was the one on camera, but Tye was right there for the whole thing.
In the clip, the 23-year-old Tenore athlete breaks down a standing Mir Lock for Cheuko, and the video ends with the bodyguard applying the very same hold on him and forcing a tap.
Ultimately, the welterweight submission grappling king and his twin brother walked away with a positive experience.
Tye told onefc.com:
“He’s such a cool dude. He’s got some really good energy. You could tell he loves martial arts a lot, so he was down just to go over a bunch of little moves while we were out in public.”
Cheuko did not walk into this impromptu lesson with a blank slate. He regularly appears in clips online working through boxing, Muay Thai, and more, so a new discipline was a natural next stop.
For the two Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts who live and breathe the sport, a curious student with that background was a welcome sight.
Tye added:
“We didn’t necessarily have a mat underneath our feet, but he was still willing to roll and do some jiu-jitsu. He’s got martial arts in his heart, for sure.”
Tye Chases History, Kade Hunts A Former King
The Ruotolo twins may have spent a Los Angeles afternoon playing teachers for Lionel Messi’s bodyguard, but the calendar is about to get serious.
Tye goes first. The 23-year-old California native returns on Friday, November 6, when he challenges two-division ONE MMA World Champion Christian “The Warrior” Lee for the lightweight belt in the main event of The Inner Circle 37. Their battle on the Asia primetime card will be exclusively available for subscribers at live.onefc.com.
A win would make him a two-sport ONE World Champion and the first to do so in submission grappling and MMA. Tye has strung together two highlight-reel triumphs in MMA, and with nine submission grappling wins alongside them, he sits at a combined 11-0 in the world’s largest martial arts organization.
Kade follows him into the spotlight on martial arts’ grandest stage just over a month later.
He faces former ONE Lightweight MMA World Champion Ok Rae Yoon at ONE Fight Night 50, live from Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium in U.S. primetime on Friday, December 18.
The younger twin brother is 10-0 across the same two disciplines, with six wins in submission grappling and four stoppage victories in MMA. Should he defeat the South Korean veteran, then Kade would certainly elevate himself to the top of the division.
