Two of jiu-jitsu’s most dangerous teens have been promoted from “just blue belts” to “just purple belts.”
Kade and Tye Ruotolo, the sixteen-year-old grappling phenoms from Atos, earned their purple belts from Andre Galvao. The athletes shared their thoughts on the memorable moment on social media:
“Purple Belt Promotion 🙌🏽 2019 was definitely one of our biggest years of growth in Jiu Jitsu. At our first year of competing at juvenile, we won gold at all of the big tournaments that we had entered. Europeans, Pans and Worlds. We also created opportunities to test our skills in some of the biggest competitions in submission grappling, with ADCC being the most memorable and starting the momentum. The experiences of traveling, winning, losing, learning, training, meeting new people is all part of this life and we are stoked to be where we are.
Thank you Professor Andre and Professor Angelica for creating such an amazing place to train. We love our team. We are also grateful for all of our sponsors, family and friends for the support we have had throughout the years. We are really looking forward to 2020 🙏🏽 Happy New Year”
The promotion won’t make too much of a difference in terms of the twins’ eligibility to compete at the highest level of jiu-jitsu. Both brothers have already faced off against opponents ranked far higher than them in events usually reserved for elite-level brown and black belts. In fact, Tye made it all the way to the semi-finals of ADCC this year and defeated Vagner Rocha at Fight 2 Win shortly thereafter. The promotion is a great reflection of how far these two have come in 2019 alone.
