Kade Ruotolo explains choosing Craig Jones Invitational over ADCC

Kade Ruotolo, this jiu-jitsu wizard who just competed in his first mixed martial arts bout, is taking his grappling talents to the Craig Jones Invitational.

Ruotolo confirmed the news on a recent edition of The MMA Hour that he, along with his brother Tye, will be competing at the new CJI tournament on Aug. 16 and 17 over the ADCC championships. This is a major move in the jiu-jitsu community, and it wasn’t a call that the Ruotolos made lightly.

“That was a super tough decision for my brother and I,” Ruotolo said. “We were getting pulled between ADCC and that new CJI. So we were really kind of torn in both directions and made our decision to go with CJI.

“There’s a couple of reasons [why we chose to go there], it didn’t narrow it down to one thing. My brother and I both made the decision together. There were a couple of things. First, not to state the obvious, $1 million is $1 million, [that’s] just so much money. ADCC has the accolades and prestige, but with this new CJI coming into play, a lot of the hefty competitors, a lot of the sick names have left already and gone into this next division.

“The other thing is my brother and I can compete in the same division, but on opposite sides. So I reckon my brother will be on one side of the bracket, I’ll be on the other ... so if all goes well, we’ll meet in the finals and have an awesome war there.”

In his MMA debut at ONE 167 earlier this month, the youngest ADCC champion of all-time submitted Blake Cooper in the first round. Eventually, Ruotolo wants to go all-in on MMA and see how far it can take him.

Before that, and after winning at the ADCC tournament, Ruotolo hopes to put money in the bank — which he has the chance to get a heck of a lot more of with the CJI.

“ADCC is the most prestigious no-gi tournament since they started,” Ruotolo said. “I wouldn’t say that they’re in trouble, I would say they should probably try to listen to the athletes in a sense where you see a lot of these guys move to CJI. One of the main [and] obvious reasons is you got to ADCC, you get the gold medal, you go through all the wars, and it’s only $10,000 for the winner.

“I think it’s $10,001 for the CJI, and then obviously $1 million to win. If you’re coming from money, it’s not too big a deal, you want that prestige, you want that title, but the majority of us aren’t coming from money. We’re all trying to be first generation millionaires. ... From a financial standpoint, it really makes sense to do this.”