Tye Ruotolo Details Road To Recovery Before Title Defense At ONE Fight Night 31

“It sucks, you know, being couch-locked. It’s like there’s nothing to do. I was on Fortnite, just gaming and stuff. I had to get out of the house, figure it out, and then start walking. Get back to trusting my knee again. Right after it happened, I just took a mental picture of when my knee felt good, the way it felt when it was perfect. And so that way I’d be able to compare it to throughout the healing process, and I’m right back there to that point, so I’m happy,” Tye Ruotolo said.

Although he was not able to compete, Ruotolo still found ways to stay active in the game. The most important part was his role as a coach for his brother, Kade. His twin continued his successful foray into mixed martial arts, but it was not always easy seeing his brother doing what he could not while on the sidelines.

“I feel like the toughest part was watching [Kade] scrapping in MMA. It just made me really wanna scrap, too. But, also, it was nice just being able to be in the coach’s chair and not have to worry about competing. Usually, we compete on the same night, or I got something else to stress about, but I was there just fully in coach mode in the last six months. So that was kinda cool to be in that kind of chair. Obviously, whenever he fights, I wanna be scrapping right there with him, though,” the Atos BJJ star remarked.

Tye Ruotolo Embracing New Healthy Diet Ahead of Dante Leon Clash

Tye Ruotolo’s time away also gave him new insight into nutrition as a professional athlete. With his title defense on the calendar, he has put his new diet to the test during his camp. Ruotolo has made sure his diet does not detract from his recovery and preparation.

“I learned that what you eat is super important. I was never super strict on my diet. In fact, I always had a pretty bad relationship with food, just with all the weight cuts. And the American diet isn’t set up to be the healthiest, so I definitely had my fair share of s*** food over the years,” Tye Ruotolo said.

“I noticed that when you have an injury like that, the inflammation and how much it affects your injury. So just the diet and taking it day by day. When you have an injury, you’re looking in the future and you’re worrying about how much time you’re gonna be out, and you’re worrying about everything in the future that you can’t control,” the American finished.

ONE Fight Night 31 airs live on Prime Video on Friday, May 2. The action begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. The event is free for all Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. and Canada.