Tye Ruotolo is heading into battle motivated, but not emotional, against Reinier de Ridder.

At ONE Fight Night 10 on Friday, May 5, the teenage grappling phenom is set to face De Ridder in a middleweight submission grappling bout. The event takes place inside 1stBank Center in Colorado for ONE Championship's first live event held in the United States.

Reinier de Ridder faced Tye Ruotolo's mentor, Andre Galvao, in a submission grappling contest last year. At the time, the rules dictated that a match ends in a draw if no competitor is able to win by submission after 12 minutes of action.

Now that it's his turn to face 'The Dutch Knight', the 20-year-old was asked if he's taking this match personally because of the outcome of Galvao's match with him.

Tye Ruotolo told The MMA Superfan:

"I don’t think that match made it a whole lot more emotional for me. I’m not really an emotional fighter, I try not to get emotional. But anytime my professor fights against someone, I feel like I want to be right there with him. However it goes for him, I’m going to be backing him up no matter what. I’m definitely looking to smash Reinier [de Ridder] and take him out."

The rules have changed since De Ridder and Galvao's match, with bouts now lasting only 10 minutes and a winner being determined by the highest nuumber of attempts and near-finishes. However, Tye Ruotolo has not needed the full 10 minutes in his first two contests in ONE Championship.

So far, he's found success in taking down notable MMA grapplers like Garry Tonon and Marat Gafurov. He's looking to add Reinier de Ridder to his prolific hit list despite giving up a lot of size in their matchup.

Fans in North America can watch the event live and for free via Prime Video with an active Amazon subscription.