The Shintaro Higashi Show - An Interview With Ruotolo Brothers

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

In this episode, Peter sits down with the Ruotolo brothers Kade and Tye. The brothers talk about how they started BJJ as babies and their professional careers, as well as their upcoming fights at ONE Fight Night 21 on 4/5/2024. You can catch their fights on Amazon Prime! Join our Discord server and start chatting with us and other grapplers by supporting us on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Any amount helps!

Welcome to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today we have special guests, the Rotolo Brothers, Kate and Ty. Before we get started, we'd like to thank our sponsors, Jason, Levant, and David, as well as judotv.com where you can use our discount code SHINTARO. Now to the main episode. Hello everyone, welcome to the Shintaro Higashi Show with Peter Yu. Today it's just gonna be me. Shintaro's traveling around the world right now.

He's actually in Turkey commentating the judo grand slam in Antalya or it's Turkey and now it's not Turkey Turkey yeah yeah so and today we have a special guest rotolo brothers Kate and Ty they're gonna have a they have a fight BGHA practitioners, submission grapplers. So let's get to it. I know that you guys are the child prodigies. You guys started at three BJJs. And it seems like your dad was a big BJJ practitioner already. So can you tell me about how that happened? What was that like? what was that like yeah you know i don't really remember much in that time but i'll go from what i was told but you know we were uh we started training when we were potty trained really so as soon as as we we were out of the diapers the mats you know and yeah we wanted to even train before that you know my parents said all right priorities you know when you guys are ready you're going but uh yeah you know we just uh my daddy was a blue belt at the time oh okay i was wondering

if he was like a black belt already like and but he just he was he also just had just started and then he just loved it so much i think maybe in training for he was like one of those sandbagging blues like maybe not training i know those i know those years yeah i see yeah you know he was always having my brother and i scrap with each other just before jiu-jitsu you know this. It was a couple of years, yeah. I see. Yeah, you know, he was always having my brother and I scrap with each other just before jiu-jitsu. You know, this and he was always messing around with us. Just horse playing around? Oh, that's great. That's great.

First class it was on. Right. And how was it like growing up with a brother? You guys are identical, right? So identical twins. So you guys are the same size and everything. So it must have been great to have a training partner like that because i have a brother myself but he's younger so and we have some weight and height difference so it wasn't too like that even though

we wrestled and did judo together how was that like growing up with a twin brother it's like a carbon copy of yourself you know so yeah really it's like for clothes everything Definitely is the reason why we're at this part where we're at today, you know as far as right and competition everything It's because of that, you know, all right. Well, that's for sure Yeah, so do you guys have have you guys still have developed different metas or like different styles or do you guys? Are your styles pretty similar like how did that happen they're similar in ways but they also have differences you know like we have a lot of similarities but we also have some very big differences you know say a lot of our techniques are very similar in which we like to use but our paces and things like that tend to be different

oh so the difference is in the pace so who's the who's the go-getter and then who's the more relaxed one i would say kate is he doesn't kate doesn't even know what he wants to do to be honest with you you know i usually have a pretty solid game plan you know and i try to follow it and if it strays it's okay but uh kate i know for sure is incredible to watch it kate takes it as it comes huh as they come okay so you guys started in huntington beach and that's when you guys were training at uh art of jiu-jitsu with the mendez brothers, yeah? Yes. And then- Oh, I take that back.

Sorry, we first started, so that was where we did the majority of our training, but when we first started out, it was at a smaller gym called Clever Jiu-Jitsu. Okay, that's still on Huntington Beach? Yes. Okay, I see. Oh, I see, I see. So as you guys were taking it more seriously,

you guys were moving to a bigger gym and stuff. And then, I see, I see. So as you guys were taking it more seriously, you guys were moving to a bigger gym and stuff. Exactly. I see, I see. And then you guys eventually moved to ATOS with Andre Galvao. So by that time, when you guys were training with the Mendes brothers and Galvao, were you guys already dedicated to going pro? Because you guys were so young at that time and then jiu-jitsu back then i mean now it's like a full-on professional sport on its own so mission grappling and all but i would imagine that back then the scene wasn't at all like like that like

there wasn't like a clear path towards a to becoming a professional athlete in this area so how was that like yeah you know we uh when we made that change to Atos, we were driving from Huntington to San Diego, which is about an hour and a half. We were on pretty much every day. It's a long drive. And so we make the most out of our training days. And it was a grind, you know, for sure.

And we're just going over. What was the question in particular? Oh, sorry. I was wondering if you guys already had an idea that you wanted to like dedicate your lives to this like as a professional when we were early teenagers say around like you know 12 13 years old we first landed our first sponsorship through jiu-jitsu then we were like you know early teenagers we started making a little bit of money some paycheckscks. And, you know, at that time, we were young, obviously.

And to really even make a living, you still had to go open up a gym, you know. Right. Exactly. Yeah. It wasn't, you know, too much. And that's why I was even just thinking about it now, like how much effort and trust that my parents put into my brother and I. You know, my mom was driving us to San Diego every day, you know. And they were putting all of their chips in our basket almost like right yeah three years old

they were just putting in all their effort you know and uh and it's paying off now you know you guys are in the world stage you know you know amazon prime and everything yes that's great that's great so we're gonna like we're I'm going to ask you individually about your professional careers a little. So let's start with Cade first. And I wanted to ask you about how it was to fight Shinya Aoki, the legend, the Tobikan Jyudan. How was that like? I'm such a legend. Yeah, big fan of Shinya, man.

He's an amazing person. His ability – like his hands, you know, his hands. My brother and I, we both have like pretty big hands. Like most people, you know, for the most part, our hands are bigger. And it's crazy. When I put my hands up to his, his hands are like this much bigger than mine. Oh, his hands are that big? I didn't know.

It's unbelievable. I didn't know. And that was the first thing I noticed in our match was his grip strength. Right, right. He seems like a monkey almost just where it's getting ripped and you can't get it back you know it's crazy it's wrist control you know what they say they say big hands big gloves yeah they say a lot of other things about people with big hands but you know we'll skip that but he's got his grip strength and his ability to to uh kind of defend the chokes and keep it safe. I mean, he was amazing, man.

He was awesome. Nice, nice. Were you guys able to, because he was a little older at that time, right? Like he was kind of the legend already. And then did you guys have a chance to talk about BJJ and everything? Yeah, you know, obviously the language barrier is a bit difficult. We did the best we could. Oh, things like that english is way better than our japanese very true i could probably see that but uh yeah we talked we tried as much as we can you know

and every time i see him it's always you know hats off respect you know right good that guy is so humble and it was just a good yeah you-earth guy. He's very nice. Yeah, I'm a huge fan also. So how about let's move on to ADCC in 2022. You won that by beating Mikhail Galvao. Not related to Andre Galvao, your teacher, right? Your coach? I don't think so. So how's that?

That's ADCC. I don't think so. So how was that like? That's ADCC. They say it's the Olympics of submission grappling. I mean, it's the highest competition out there for submission grappling. How was that like at such a young age? Yeah, that was an amazing experience for sure. The ADCC is definitely probably our most prestigious or one of our most prestigious events

we have out there yeah it was it's got to be without a doubt the best event of my life and best performance of my life yeah yeah and did well was did you have to change anything about your training to get ready for that or would you just kind of keep it the same yeah i know we we did some uh some small changes for sure i guess the biggest change would be the foundation training and and the amount of you know body work and body awareness going into that you know is we're training really hard and and in the past when we train really hard our bodies start to break down you know right right just the amount of you know we call it foundation training and and you know just doing as much just body work and that was

the best my body has ever felt for competition and the best i physically felt because i was putting in the work and also feeling healthy and feeling good you know so yeah i think that's how you can tell a sport is maturing like as a professional sport that's when like athletes take care of themselves instead of just like oh we gotta go hard all the time because that's not sustainable right it's you know yeah you've seen surfing back in the 80s so you'd trip so and now after that you signed with one championship um so how was how did that transition happen and you know how was it like to become the first ever the lightweight submission grappling champion like was it an easy transition what uh i think i read that you guys are thinking about uh going into mma also with one championship is it yeah how is it in the near

future that's the plan yeah we've been so so thankful and and stoked just with everything that we've done through One Championships. You know, they always bring such a great level of professionalism and so easy to work with. And it's always an amazing show, not even to be a participant, but to or not even to compete, but to also just be able to be there and as a spectator, just to watch all the talent on the cards. Right. It's always just it's an experience for me you know so uh you know i'm so thankful and and and uh just being there i think experience but what we've done for us outside of the show has been unreal you know we got to build our dream gym because of cha tree one you know so man yeah we we love you chatri and then he's amazing he himself is you can tell

if he himself is a martial artist you know and he knows how to take care of the martial arts he hires you know 100 it takes a martial artist to really understand one and right no better person to run a platform of martial arts platform that's right himself right that's right all right now to thai so i so i know that in 2021 ibjj world you guys fought I know that in 2021 IBJJF Worlds, you guys fought. You guys had a match. And the tie came up tough. Yeah. What happened?

That's so classic. Right in the background right now, it was just literally just going on. That's a funny story. You know, two days before the event, I was in Costa Rica. And I wasn't planning on doing it. I was planning on going to Worlds. And my mom was like, no, you got and i wasn't planning on doing it you know i was planning on oh okay worlds and uh and my mom was like oh you guys we're doing it we're gonna all right last minute i committed and i thought for sure i could do the middleweight divisions and then and i guess i was signed up in the light and i couldn't switch so i had to lose 15 pounds in two days i came back it

was gnarly every match i had that day i was just cramping everywhere you could think of my oh man i had the worst performances but i made it to the finals he just coasted his way to the finals somehow i mean sometimes yeah i remember being in close guard like both of my forearms are just locked in cramps both my hips cramps i'm like i'm not gonna move yeah like you know it's like the muscle your forearm muscles are pumping and you just can't do anything right and it was funny because kate had a little bit not too much of a camp but for sure more than me and he was killing everyone subbing everyone's flying through amazing so we went in the finals i was already thinking like okay i'm gonna have to pull something out the hat for sure because i'm not feeling good you know i know

kate is on fire and then uh then a match went kind of how i thought it was gonna go like back and forth but kate's starting to take it a little bit more you can tell a little fresher and just on top of it more and then uh i thought i just created an opportunity i got lucky on an armbar yeah a little bit yeah yeah i mean that goes to show how close you guys are you know like you guys know each other's game like inside out and everything i mean that could only happen because it was your brother like you you've you kind of know how to make the opening because you've done it every day for like 20 years almost you know so that's amazing that's no one knows you know each other better we almost know each other better than ourselves you know right and now after that you you competed in who's number of with flow grappling so two division champs and the youngest black belt champion at 2020 IBJJF Worlds

and you also competed at ADCC Absolute. I know it's a lot. So I'm mostly curious about how competing at the Absolute division turned out to be. What made you decide that because that's all it's you know it's intimidating you know for sure yeah i love fighting bigger guys you know i've always loved yeah and uh yeah i don't know whatever it is the david goliath and i just don't like the the feeling of thinking that there's someone out there that can beat me regardless of the size you know so yeah it's an absolute division i lost in my division at adcc you know i had a shocker first round and uh yeah this wasn't

much of i knew i could do a lot better you know so i was really excited to do the absolute and uh yeah i had some great matches i got the submission over pedro marino which was a war and then uh beat fleet pena was an animal you know he's a big guy too so in that match i ended up tearing my knee in a couple of different spots yeah so going into the marigoli match i had to like fully refocus get my mind in order and then uh i had a war with marigoli too ended up he took it with the ref's decision um i thought it was pretty controversial i you know i never i won't submit someone i never complained you know but yeah but you know i'm really looking forward to get that one back

especially with a healthy knee you know i've seen after yeah i think some shit so i'm looking forward to it i yeah i'm sure that will happen soon and then you also signed with your brother to one champ one championship and funny thing is you fought you had about one fight not 10 against Rainier de Ritter from the Netherlands we actually interviewed him for for that fight oh no way yeah yeah it's a great guy I watched the match and you know I you know Rainier is a great guy but I'll have to say you you took that match you know fair and square yeah so how was that like yeah how was that like because he was i remember rainier because he has a judo background so he said he wanted to do more of the takedown game also but you you went toe-to-toe with him

on that on your feet yeah yeah yeah you know i i have a lot of faith in my my wrestling you know i'll never pull hard, right, pretty much. I love that. I love that. No matter how big they are or who it is, you know. So that was one thing with Rainier. I really wish that match wasn't in the cage. He was doing a really good job of being defensive on the cage.

Right. It's hard to get him off. Yeah. But, yeah, other than that, you know, it was the same thing I always do. You know, put the pace, go forward, try to break them. Nice. I had more time in that match. But but uh yeah thanks terrania for taking it he's an mma fighter i know i mean he's you know i'm a judo guy myself so i love that you guys are like all about the takedowns too you know guys guys yeah yeah don't pull guard guys all the cool all right so then you you went to become welterweight submission grappling title against magomed abdul khar dirov yeah so so how was that like you know

i think he's a sambo guy? Am I remembering correctly? Mago man. He might dabble, but he's mostly Jiu-Jitsu. Oh, he's Jiu-Jitsu? Yeah. He's a beast. He's one guy that I didn't take lightly. He actually has a good win over Mika Galbao. I was going to say he was the only other... When I submitted Mika Galbao at ABCC, they were saying the only guy to submit Mika

but it wasn't true. The only other guy to submit Mika was Mago actually. Right. He's a bit of a super name, for sure. Yeah, and he's a tough guy, you know, so I did take him lightly, and I went there to do, you know, what the plan was, you know, go secure the belt, and it happened, you know, so I was super stoked. I didn't get the sub.

The match was super exciting, you know. He was very defensive, you know, so I couldn't quite get the sub. Yeah. No, not with Makoved. That was the last one. super exciting you know he was very defensive you know so I couldn't quite get this up yeah but uh I came real close many different times you know well yeah you gotta you gotta no I mean for middle four like you you have to be a little defensive I'm sure you know for sure you know so yeah I was I was just great it was a great day you know to finally get the belt wrapped around my waist my brother had the belt for a little while now so to be able to you know be the be the champ with him yeah your parents must be so proud you know all those

years of driving paying off finally right so now this brings us to april 5th coming up one fight night 21 in bangkok kate is fighting francisco lowe you're going up a weight class yes are you trying to do the double champion thing 180. no so just it's a it's a catch weight so the goal really i don't think he can make 170. i would love to fight you know depend on okay i just think it would have been too much weight for him to cut so uh that's that 180 and i was like yeah let's do it all right oh so so you've been uh eating a lot and just trying to gain some more muscle is that is that how you've been doing it season yeah i'm still now you can tell i can tell i can tell so what's your plan gameplay obviously you don't have to

reveal every detail but what what's your what are your thoughts right now just when you know that he's a bit of a question mark as far as his game goes he's very uh he's almost similar to me in a sense where he's an opportunist where he just kind of sends attacks from anywhere and just kind of makes it happen it's not really like an a game that you know he's going to go for you don't know if he's going to go for a footlock or a triangle or you know he's got some flying submissions that you know are pretty cool and crafty so um he's kind of just a question mark so that's that's why i'm excited i know he's going to bring right um some some new things to the table and uh he's an exciting competitor for the most part so i'm excited to to have someone who's tough and and kind of it excites me nice it'll be

a fun match for you like you have to stay on your feet huh okay yeah for sure absolutely and ty you're defending your title against isaac mitchell isaac mitchell I hope I'm saying it right. So, do you, well, yeah, so how, same question to you. What are your, what are your thoughts right now, like going into this match? I'm excited. I'm really excited to defend my belt. You know, that's my first belt defense and yeah, I'm so happy I just got the belt you know obviously i don't want to

lose it you know so everyone wants it now you know yeah exactly exactly you know it's a new one you know 185 you know one championship is doing something that no one else is doing you know and they're giving opportunity that you can't get anywhere else you know right yeah i feel like i'm fighting for more than just you know a belt you know it's more than just a match you know there's a lot of guys i mean there's no other organizations doing this submission grappling like bouts you know so 100 not not the way one's doing it yeah and uh yeah i'm really excited to get isaac you know he's an animal he's a really you know high level tough guy you know and uh that's what makes me the most excited you know to fight yeah i know he's come at me and then i'm like i'm like to obviously come right back at him so all right

yeah very very pumped for you best of luck to you both on april 5th and we're gonna wrap up with the two questions we ask everyone so first is what does martial arts mean to you does martial arts mean to you martial arts the way of life honestly for me yeah yeah way of life lifestyle you know it's pure you can't you can't do too much jiu-jitsu live a bad lifestyle i'll tell you that much you'll be the nail every day and i'll be the hammer you know so that's one thing you know that jiu-jitsu and this martial arts in general is keeping it head on your shoulders saves lives I know way of life. Yeah now I completely agree with that So now the last question to wrap it up, you know You guys are the superstars now to child prodigies and I'm sure a lot of young people are looking up to you

So any advice to those young kids who aspire to be just like you guys to be champions yeah 100 you know make sure you never lose the love of jiu-jitsu right or whatever it is you're doing number one you just got to love what you do right when you love what you do you never work a day in your life right uh yeah classic classic i'll tell you what there's there's definitely days where it feels like you hate it. You know, you're on your last round and you're two hours into a practice. You're thinking, why am I doing this again? But, you know, you always remember at the end of the day after that, you know, that gold medal is around you or that belt's around your waist or whatever the case may be.

It always pays off in the end. Right. You never regret putting in the work. Yeah. And always keep, you know, your friends and family close, you know. Yeah. it always pays off in the end right you never regret putting in the work yeah 100 and always keep keep you know your friends and family close you know and uh yeah and that's that you know if you have a good circle around you that'll help take you so far you know that's one thing that my brother and i we've been so grateful to have you know so yeah it's so great that you guys are

mentioning that because you know this will be tough no matter how much you love it it'll be tough so you have to love the art and you have to have loving people around you to support you and that's very great that's not easy yeah exactly yeah people around you exactly well thanks a lot guys um best of luck to you on one fight night 21, April 5th. You can watch it on Amazon Prime. They're going to be in Bangkok, Thailand, right? Best of luck to you. Thank you so much, brother. Great talking to you.

Great talking to you guys. Yes, sir.