Tye Ruotolo isn’t hedging. The ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion challenges two-division king Christian Lee for the ONE Lightweight MMA World Title in the main event of The Inner Circle 37 on Friday, November 6, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok. He told onefc.com exactly how he sees it going: “It’s going to be a war. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but I think I’m going to leave with the belt around my waist, and it’s going to be a gnarly night.”
The card starts at 6:30 p.m. ICT (6:30 a.m. ET) and streams for Inner Circle members on live.onefc.com.
This one carries family baggage. In September 2025 at ONE Fight Night 35, Ruotolo made his MMA debut against Adrian Lee, Christian’s younger brother. He survived a back-and-forth fight and finished it with a rear-naked choke in Round 2, handing Adrian the first loss of his career while Christian worked the corner. Ruotolo said he had called out the older Lee before that fight even happened, and he rejected any idea that he’s overreaching: “I’ve never asked for a fight I never thought that I could win, and I’m not one to bite off more than I can chew.”
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The resumes
Ruotolo is 23, a BJJ black belt who started training at age three alongside his twin brother Kade, the ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion. Tye is 9-0 in ONE submission grappling. He won the inaugural welterweight title against Magomed Abdulkadirov in 2023 and has defended it three times, most recently against Pawel Jaworski at ONE Fight Night 41 in March. After the Adrian Lee win, he put Shozo Isojima to sleep in under three minutes at ONE 173 in November 2025, earning a US$50,000 performance bonus. That makes him 2-0 in MMA, with both wins by submission.
Lee, 28, is a problem of a completely different size. He debuted in ONE at 17 and became the promotion’s youngest male MMA World Champion in May 2019 by knocking out Shinya Aoki in Round 2 at ONE: Enter the Dragon. In November 2022, he added welterweight gold by stopping Kiamrian Abbasov at ONE on Prime Video 4. He later took the lightweight belt back from Ok Rae Yoon and is in his second reign. His last outing was a Round 2 TKO of Alibeg Rasulov at ONE 173, on the same card where Ruotolo beat Isojima. Seventeen of his 18 wins have come inside the distance, and he holds ONE’s records for most wins, most finishes and most first-round finishes.
The stakes for Ruotolo are historic. No ONE Submission Grappling World Champion has ever won an MMA World Title. Ruotolo told onefc.com that he expects “pressure is going to meet pressure,” and that winning would mean bridging the gap from jiu-jitsu stylist to full martial artist.
My take
I love the grappling matchup, and I respect that Ruotolo is taking this fight two fights in. Still, the Adrian fight is the tape that worries me. Adrian dragged him into exchanges for more than a round before Ruotolo found the back, and Christian hits a lot harder than his little brother while finishing almost everybody he fights. If Ruotolo gets a body lock early, his back takes are absurd and the choke is live. I don’t think Lee gives him that many looks. I’m taking Lee by TKO in Round 2, and I’ll be thrilled to be wrong if Ruotolo is draped across his back by the midpoint of Round 1.
