Mauricio Ruffy endured a rough outing at UFC Paris, suffering a devastating loss to Benoit Saint Denis.
The bout took place at the Accor Arena, where UFC stars like Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho also competed. For Ruffy, it was a night of disappointment as he was out-grappled by his opponent. While Ruffy managed to stay on his feet and land solid strikes, Saint Denis absorbed the shots, dragged the fight to the ground, and pummeled Ruffy before locking in a rear-naked choke in round two. Ruffy tapped, marking the first loss of his UFC career, a setback that drew heavy criticism from UFC analyst Din Thomas.
“I’ve been high on Ruffy since he hit the stage,” Thomas said on the UFC Paris Post Show. “We’ve been making comparisons between him and Conor McGregor, and I expected that from Ruffy. I said this guy, especially fighting a guy that gets wild like Benoit Saint Denis, I thought he would be able to pick him apart. I thought he was going to do something fascinating tonight, and the first body kick shook Ruffy up. Then the head kick shook him up. And I think that took Ruffy so far out of his game, he did not want to fight anymore.”
This isn’t the first time Thomas has been critical of Ruffy. Fans also questioned Ruffy’s effort against Llontop at UFC 309, with Thomas suggesting the moment was too big for the Fighting Nerds product.
“He didn’t want to be out there anymore, and it surprised me,” Thomas said. “He made me eat my words. And I’m always happy when these guys can make me eat my words, because that means there’s something that I don’t know. I own up to it. Benoit Saint Denis made me eat my words tonight.
“I was uncomfortable talking to Benoit Saint Denis about the fight, because I thought he was going to get beat up. Tonight he made me eat my words and Mauricio Ruffy also made me eat my words. Maybe he’s not as good as we thought he was. Yet. He’s still got some work to do. But tonight he did not show up, and he did not look like he wanted to be out there.”
Thomas wasn’t the only one unimpressed. Fans flooded Ruffy’s Instagram page with insults and negative comments:
“Zero effort. As soon as you see adversity you quit. Embarrassing.”
“Are you the new clown who wants to stop Makhachev and Ilia 😂”
“TF were you doing tonight 😂”
“Dude was calling out Islam Makhachev 😂😂😂 and got mauled by the Walmart version of him 😂😂”
“No grappling defense ✅”
“You fight in MMA and you say sambo is not important. Tonight, you tap because you take something for granted. 👏”
Whether Ruffy can bounce back remains to be seen. Before UFC Paris, he was riding a seven-fight winning streak, but the loss to Saint Denis exposed major holes in his game.
