Ruotolo says he does not want to fight the taxi cab drivers

Tye Ruotolo says he does not want to fight the taxi cab drivers. He told MMA Fighting he wants to fight the best in the world, and he told Chatri Sityodtong and his brother Kade that he does not want a million MMA matches.

He challenges Christian Lee for the lightweight title on November 6, in his third professional fight, in the main event of The Inner Circle 37 at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, which that story reports. MMA Fighting calls the belt welterweight. ONE lists the lightweight title, lightweight is 170 pounds (77 kg), and Ruotolo said he wants the 170 belt.

Ruotolo is 23 and 2-0, and he submitted Adrian Lee, Christian’s younger brother, with a rear-naked choke at 4:14 of the second round on September 5, 2025, at ONE Fight Night 35, Adrian’s first professional loss, which paid a $50,000 bonus, and he submitted Shozo Isojima, who was 6-0, with a rear-naked choke at 2:26 of the first round at ONE 173 on November 16, 2025, which paid the same bonus.

Ruotolo said the move into MMA has felt like being a white belt again, that training has been easy, and that the hand-eye coordination is different from jiu-jitsu. He asked for Adrian as a solid first opponent so he could test his skills, after watching Kade and deciding the two of them were already more than jiu-jitsu guys. Marcus Buchecha, Rodolfo Vieira, and Gilbert Burns were the grapplers who made him want that move, and he has beaten Reinier de Ridder, Marat Gafurov, and Vagner Rocha in grappling.

Lee is 28 and 18-4, with one no contest, seventeen of the 18 wins ended inside the distance, and he has been submitted once, a 2016 loss to Martin Nguyen. He also holds the welterweight title, which he won in 2022, and he won the lightweight title in 2019, the youngest male MMA world champion in ONE, when he knocked out Shinya Aoki at 0:51 of the second round at ONE: Enter the Dragon on May 17, lost that belt to Ok Rae Yoon in September 2021, and won it back in the rematch a year later. Lee stopped Alibeg Rasulov with knees at 2:32 of the second round at ONE 173 on November 16, 2025, in the one defense of the current reign, after a no contest in their first meeting on December 7, 2024.

Ruotolo expects Lee to throw big kicks and punches and try to finish in the first round, with a high pace and a lot of aggression, and if that misses he expects leg kicks and a punch when the chin comes up. He assumes Lee does not want to grapple, and he rated that grappling a five or a six, with Robelis Despaigne as a one and Gordon Ryan or the Ruotolos as a ten. His own plan is forward pressure, he said the chance of winning is the submission, and he said it could come in the first round or the second, that a five-round war is possible, and that the higher chance is a finish in a couple of rounds.

Ruotolo said the pressure sits on Lee to avenge Adrian, that he will be scrapping against someone tough, and that he is not counting the odds. He does not expect Lee to get overly emotional, because Lee has been a champion for a long time. A win would make Ruotolo an MMA champion at 3-0, and no ONE submission grappling world champion has won an MMA world title. He is the welterweight submission grappling champion, he will sit with Kade and build the next six months, CJI is next year, and he wants to defend the jiu-jitsu belt at ONE in December or January and then defend both belts.

Ruotolo said jiu-jitsu had started to motivate him less, and that MMA has him fired up because he can see the work left. The camp is the one he and Kade use, with Erik Paulson and Tyler Wombles, and he sees a couple of openings to attack.

Komawut FA Group meets Yodphupa Petkiatpet in the bantamweight Muay Thai co-main, which that story reports. Later the same night, ONE Friday Fights 177 puts Isannuea Sor Sasiwat against Jack Siatanyokkrok PK in bantamweight Muay Thai. The Inner Circle 37 streams for members on live.onefc.com.

Start time

The show is listed from 6:30 p.m. Indochina Time. Indochina Time is seven hours ahead of UTC, and Sydney is on daylight time, eleven hours ahead of UTC.

6:30 p.m. in Bangkok:

• Bangkok: 6:30 p.m.
• London: 11:30 a.m.
• Sydney: 10:30 p.m.

In New York that is 6:30 a.m. Eastern, and in Las Vegas it is 3:30 a.m. Pacific.