Ruan Alvarenga: “I like big trouble”
Unbeaten in two matches in the promotion, the Brazilian tells VF Comunica he has no desire to face Owen Jones and prefers opponents who push forward
Ruan Alvarenga has won both of his matches in ONE Championship and is already thinking about what comes next. After he beat Shoya Ishiguro last Friday, October 2, in Bangkok, the promotion itself named Fabricio “Hokage” Andrey and Owen Jones as possible opponents for the Brazilian at featherweight. VF Comunica asked Alvarenga who he would pick, and his answer pointed somewhere else.
“Honestly, I have no desire to face Owen. It would be a boring match to watch, he would pull guard on me and keep trying to attack my legs. I want to face someone who fights jiu-jitsu moving forward, aggressive, to put on a show for the ONE fans,” he said.
One division up
The opponent Alvarenga has in mind is in the division above. “I am 2-0 in ONE. Maybe moving up to 77 and doing a superfight with Kade would be awesome, I like big trouble,” he added.
Kade is Kade Ruotolo, the ONE lightweight submission grappling world champion, a division with a 170-pound (77.1 kg) limit. The American won the belt in October 2022, defended it three times and won the Craig Jones Invitational in 2024. He also fights MMA in the promotion, where he is unbeaten. Alvarenga competes at featherweight, which has a 155-pound (70.3 kg) limit.
Who Owen Jones and Fabricio Andrey are
Owen Jones, a 21-year-old from England, is coming off a split-decision win over Andrey at ONE Fight Night 44 in June. His game is built on guard retention and leg attacks, the style Alvarenga says he does not want to face. Andrey went into that match on a three-match winning streak in ONE.
Two matches, two decisions
At 28, the Academia Pantera Negra representative made his ONE debut in August with a unanimous-decision win over Meyram Maquine, and won again in October by split decision, in a match where he and Ishiguro each locked in a heel hook. The son of Iran Brasileiro Alvarenga, the coach who trained Marcelo Garcia, he gained international attention by winning the ADCC Brazilian Trials.
So far, ONE has not announced the Brazilian’s next match.
Ruan Alvarenga against Kade Ruotolo: do you want to see this superfight? Leave your opinion in the comments.
