Mauricio Ruffy had a troublesome evening. So powerful that veteran MMA analyst Din Thomas is questioning how good he’s.
On Saturday, Benoit Saint Denis ran roughshod over Ruffy within the co-main occasion of UFC Paris, dominating the combat early earlier than submitting Ruffy with a rear-naked choke/neck crank within the second spherical. It was the primary lack of Ruffy’s UFC profession and a giant setback for the person many followers had began to imagine could also be a future champion. And that features Thomas.
“I’ve been excessive on Ruffy since he hit the stage,” Thomas stated on the UFC Paris Submit Present. “We’ve been making comparisons between him and Conor McGregor, and I anticipated that from Ruffy. I stated this man, particularly combating a man that will get wild like Benoit Saint Denis, I believed he would have the ability to decide him aside. I believed he was going to do one thing fascinating tonight, and the primary physique kick shook Ruffy up. Then the top kick shook him up. And I feel that took Ruffy to date out of his sport, he didn’t need to combat anymore.”
Ruffy entered the UFC from Contender Collection final yr, scoring wins over Jamie Mullarkey and James Llontop earlier than his breakthrough efficiency in March the place he knocked out King Inexperienced with a spinning wheel kick at UFC 313.
His breakout was not not like Saint Denis’s personal stand up the light-weight rankings, earlier than stumbling in opposition to Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano in back-to-back fights. And after Saturday, Thomas admits to being improper about each males.
“He didn’t need to be on the market anymore, and it stunned me,” Thomas stated. “He made me eat my phrases. And I’m all the time completely satisfied when these guys could make me eat my phrases, as a result of meaning there’s one thing that I don’t know. I come clean with it. Benoit Saint Denis made me eat my phrases tonight. I used to be uncomfortable speaking to Benoit Saint Denis concerning the combat, as a result of I believed he was going to get beat up. Tonight he made me eat my phrases.
“And Mauricio Ruffy additionally made me eat my phrases. Possibly he’s inferior to we thought he was. But. He’s nonetheless obtained some work to do. However tonight he didn’t present up and he didn’t appear like he wished to be on the market.”
This isn’t the primary time Thomas has been essential of Ruffy. “One Shot” didn’t dazzle in his win over Llontop at UFC 309, prompting Thomas to recommend the second was too huge for the Combating Nerds product.
Happily for Ruffy, he rebounded from that listless win together with his Knockout of the Yr contender over King in his subsequent combat, so maybe the Brazilian fighter’s subsequent bout will see him again on monitor shortly.
