“I had a heavy heart” - Tye Ruotolo felt bad for Adrian Lee after MMA debut victory

Tye Ruotolo may have left ONE Fight Night 35 with an all-important debut win in MMA, but the ONE welterweight submission grappling world champion revealed he also left the venue with some conflicted feelings.

The 22-year-old scored a second-round rear-naked choke triumph of Singaporean-American phenom Adrian Lee in their lightweight tiff inside the legendary Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, which also earned him a US$50,000 performance bonus.

It marked Lee's first defeat in the sport, but the Atos representative's empathy for his defeated opponent showcases that there's more to just winning in a sport like MMA.

"You can see the state of my opponent after, it’s not super, it’s not sunshine and butterflies. There’s nothing super cool about it. You know, I wasn’t super stoked on it. It was almost like I had a heavy heart about it, you know?" the Californian native shared during the event's post-fight press conference.

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While Lee will look to rebuild the momentum that saw him run through three of his first tests on the global stage of ONE Championship, Tye Ruotolo has got things off to a flyer in the all-encompassing discipline.

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Tye Ruotolo says he'll balance between MMA and submission grappling in ONE

In the same presser, Tye Ruotolo confirmed that while MMA may be his preference right now, he wouldn't completely abandon his bread and butter: submission grappling.

"I haven’t really thought that far, but I just know that I want to do both for sure. I want to keep winning in MMA. I don’t care to have a whole bunch of fights," he shared when asked about what's next in his career.

Whatever the future holds for the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt in the MMA scene is still anyone's guess, but finishing an opponent of Lee's caliber proves that he is more than ready to rub shoulders with the best names in the lightweight division.

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Edited by Saiyed Adeem Karim