New York City — Brazil’s Mauricio Ruffy is a Fighting Nerd, and he intends to show just what that entails in his lightweight fight with James Llontop at UFC 309 this Saturday.
Fighting Nerds has become one of the hottest teams in MMA to break out in recent years; the Brazilian camp includes Ruffy, Caio Borralho, Bruna Brasil, and UFC Vegas 100 headliner Carlos Prates, to name a few. They employ a smart, take on all comers approach to the sport, something Ruffy broke down during Wednesday’s UFC 309 media day.
“We try to show people what we work at at Fight Nerds. We are always looking to be ready for whatever fight comes or whatever kind of fighter,” explained Ruffy (10-1). “So whether it’s someone who’s aggressive, or somebody who’s calm or somebody who has a different approach, I feel that all the training that we put into it, and the way people are seeing us is just that we are always ready for that.”
“As far as James is concerned, he’s a guy that’s got great boxing, he’s a guy that is always pushing, pushing forward, always somebody that can be very dangerous standing,” observed Ruffy, turning his attention to his opponent. “But I think I’m going to do some study. This is what we do: I do an assessment basically of the fight, and once you do the assessment, you see exactly what strategy you’re going to employ. And I do believe that once I make an assessment and I understand where the fight is going, I don’t know if it’s going to be in the first round, I don’t know if it’s going to be in the second round, or if it’s going to be in the third round, but it’s over.”
“I train hard for 15 minutes, I train for three rounds, but once that happens, I see through him, and it’s over.”
Borralho, Prates, and Mauricio Ruffy have all had considerable success of late. Asked about a possible Gym of the Year award as 2024 draws to a close, Ruffy told Cageside Press that “being very sincere, asking anybody here that’s involved in this and that has seen everything that has has happened, look at all the performances, all the results we’ve had: I think we’re the leading candidate for Gym of the Year of course.”
Watch the full UFC 309 media day appearance by Mauricio Ruffy above.
