There’s been a lot of chatter round Mauricio Ruffy over the last few months.
Yes, much of it is due to the fact that he’s fighting a popular fighter in former Bellator champion Michael Chandler at the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn of the White House, but a lot is still about his decision to split from the Fighting Nerds.
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Ruffy (13-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) burst onto the UFC scene in 2023. He was part of the disruptive takeover by the Fighting Nerds, a Brazil-based team that quickly put several promising and exciting names on the map, such as Caio Borralho, Jean Silva, Ruffy and others. However, rumors began to circle late last year that Ruffy had parted ways. Since, “One Shot” confirmed he’s no longer training with the team but maintains a good relationship with them.
Ruffy’s decision brought a lot of fan scrutiny upon him that still stands several months after the split.
“I saw some trash talk on social media, but I don’t care about that,” Ruffy told MMA Junkie Radio. “I will always go to Fighting Nerds to check in and speak with my friends, and it’s really normal to me. I still have my fans. I didn’t lose any fans because of that because they know I’m doing what’s best for me, and I’m good with that.”
For his fight against Rafael Fiziev in February, a bout Ruffy won by TKO, the Brazilian trained with Alexander Volkanovski in Australia. This time around, ahead of his June 14 bout against Chandler (23-10 MMA, 2-5 UFC), Ruffy has focused the majority of his training in his hometown, where he now has a private gym.
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“I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and I’ve built a space 100 percent focused on me, bringing in fighters and coaches focused 100 percent only on me,” Ruffy said. “I love Fighting Nerds. Fighting Nerds continues to be a great friends with everyone, Pablo Sucupira, we’re always in contact. We’re great friends. However, I’ll always be a fighting nerd. I continue to study fighting. That’s in me. And now I’m 100 percent focused on me, having a team only focused on me. I feel like I needed that. That was always a dream of mine, and now I can make it happen.”
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As far as the preparation for Chandler, Ruffy has felt he’s done a good job at getting ready. For him, it’s a straightforward matchup.
“There’s nothing that worries me,” Ruffy said. “This is a sport where we have a lot of clarity about what to train and what to do. Michael Chandler has very specific characteristics, and it’s common to train for him. He’s a guy that comes in with heavy hands and works hard to get the takedowns. So, we’re preparing a lot of that. We’re also not just thinking about him, but my career as well, looking to evolve in wrestling. When I went to Australia, I dedicated a lot of time in that area, and it’s going to be cool to test myself against him to see what I’ve learned.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC White House: Mauricio Ruffy unbothered by critics
