{"id":91606,"date":"2025-08-24T05:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T05:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91606\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T05:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T05:03:08","slug":"adrian-lee-eager-of-spoiling-exciting-ruotolo-debut-sept-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/91606\/","title":{"rendered":"Adrian Lee Eager Of Spoiling Exciting Ruotolo Debut Sept. 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Undefeated MMA fighter Adrian Lee is looking to spoil Tye Ruotolo\u2019s MMA debut and make a statement. The Hawaiian teen star will put his perfect professional record on the line against the ONE Welterweight Submission Grappling World Champion in a lightweight MMA clash at ONE Fight Night 35: Buntan vs. Hemetsberger<\/a> on Friday, September 5, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand. The highly anticipated bout will see Lee defend his spotless 3-0 record against the decorated BJJ stylist, who will compete in mixed martial arts for the first time ever.<\/p>\n

Adrian Lee Questioned Ruotolo\u2019s Bold Callout Decision<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Adrian Lee was initially surprised<\/a> when Ruotolo called him out<\/a> following his submission grappling title defense against Dante Leon in May 2025. The youngest member of the prominent Lee family didn\u2019t expect to be the target of such an ambitious debut request.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on my trip with my girlfriend. I saw [an article] pop up. It was like, \u2018Tye Ruotolo wants to fight Adrian Lee,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018What?\u2019 I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good idea.\u2019 Later on, they sent over the contracts, and I was like, \u2018You know what? I\u2019ll take it. That\u2019s a great fight for me.\u2019 I don\u2019t think that it is the smartest decision for his debut fight, but it is what it is,\u201d Adrian Lee revealed.<\/p>\n

\"Adrian<\/a>Image Courtesy of ONE Championship.<\/p>\n

Despite his initial hesitation, \u201cThe Phenom\u201d recognizes the opportunity to face such a high-profile opponent. The Singaporean-American has established himself as one of MMA\u2019s most promising young stars with three consecutive submission victories and perfect 100 percent finishing rate.<\/p>\n

Experience Gap Could Prove Decisive for Adrian Lee on September 5<\/p>\n

While Adrian Lee acknowledges<\/a> Ruotolo\u2019s exceptional jiu-jitsu credentials as the reigning grappling king, he believes the transition to MMA presents significant challenges that favor his extensive mixed martial arts background.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great grappler. He\u2019s very accomplished, but that\u2019s grappling. Grappling and MMA are very different. You can\u2019t just practice MMA for two years and think you\u2019re ready to go pro. Even though he\u2019s been doing grappling since he was a kid, I\u2019ve been doing MMA since I was a kid. So, I think that\u2019s gonna show on fight night,\u201d Lee explained.<\/p>\n

Lee comes from martial arts royalty, following in the footsteps of his siblings Christian Lee and Angela Lee under the ONE Championship banner. His comprehensive skill set and decisive finishing rate suggest Ruotolo\u2019s MMA debut could be a daunting challenge.<\/p>\n

Adrian Lee Predicts Early Finish Against Grappling Champion<\/p>\n

Adrian Lee enters the contest with supreme confidence, believing his experience will overwhelm the submission grappling sensation across all facets of combat. Ultimately, he doesn\u2019t envision Ruotolo\u2019s MMA debut to last too long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna be a completely different MMA fighter, or even opponent, that he has ever faced. I really feel like I\u2019m gonna beat him everywhere in this fight. Honestly, I\u2019d say [this could end with a] first or second round knockout, TKO, or submission. I could see it going all three ways,\u201d Lee predicted.<\/p>\n

ONE Fight Night 35 airs live on Prime Video on Friday, September 5. The action begins at 9 p.m. ET\/6 p.m. PT. The event is free for all Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Undefeated MMA fighter Adrian Lee is looking to spoil Tye Ruotolo\u2019s MMA debut and make a statement. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-91606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}