Kade Ruotolo has lifted the lid on the steroid scandal engulfing the grappling world in the hopes of changing the trend.
Ahead of his ONE lightweight submission grappling world title defense against heated rival Tommy Langaker at “ONE Fight Night 11: Eersel vs. Menshikov” on Prime Video this Friday, June 9, the American superstar opened up on the worrying trend his sport is facing.
Ruotolo and his twin brother, Tye, have been practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu since the age of 3, but the 20-year-old phenom revealed that it wasn’t until adulthood when they became aware of the widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs among grappling athletes.
“My brother and I, when we were growing up, we don’t have any idea about this (steroids). It wasn’t until we started competing against these guys in the adult division,” Ruotolo said.
“We started realizing (along) with our professor. We just thought we are kids. The strength (of opposition) is so unbelievable.”
Testing for such substances is only now beginning to be implemented in the grappling world, and, as a result, a slew of suspensions have come about.
Ruotolo forged a decorated career as a brown belt before getting his black belt and becoming the youngest ADCC world champion in history last year.
While working his way up to the elite levels, the American superstar says that he got to see how systemic the cheating was in the grappling community.
“I started learning more about steroids and how prevalent it is in the sport, and you start realizing that, literally, every single person is on it, and it’s coming down from the coaches bringing it,” Ruotolo explained.
“Long story short, it’s not shunned at all, and I think there’s no one really saying, ‘Don’t do this. Don’t do this to the kids and to the next generation.’ They’re starting younger and younger, and it’s pretty sad to see.”
Now competing in ONE Championship, where testing is the norm, Ruotolo has been absolutely dominant.
He has amassed a 3-0 slate in the promotion, which includes him claiming the inaugural ONE lightweight submission grappling world title against four-time sambo world champion Uali Kurzhev at ONE Fight Night 3 last October.
As one of the poster boys for the Singapore-based organization’s submission grappling ranks, the California native plans to use his platform to advocate for clean grappling around the world.
“For my brother and I at this point, our main goal – our only goal – it’s not even about making the sport clean. I don’t even know if it’s possible. But it’s about showing the next generation that you don’t have to do it to get the results and to get to the No. 1 spot,” Ruotolo said.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do as hard as we can. Stay natural. It’s all about integrity for us and not cheating. If we were to go take steroids and go win, it wouldn’t feel like we won because we cheated. Some people don’t feel that way, obviously.”
Fans in the U.S. and Canada can watch Kade Ruotolo compete live and for free on Prime Video this Friday with an Amazon Prime membership.
