Just a few weeks after the biggest win of his career on his biggest stage yet, Mauricio Ruffy is rolling the dice on a trip to Las Vegas.
Ruffy (14-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) embarrassed former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler (23-11 MMA, 2-6 UFC) at the UFC White House card in June at lightweight. Sunday, he said he’ll travel to “Sin City” this week for UFC 329, where he has offered his services as an emergency backup for the welterweight main event.
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UFC 329 (Paramount+) sees the return of Conor McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) after five years away to take on former featherweight champion and ex-BMF titleholder Max Holloway (27-9 MMA, 23-9 UFC) at T-Mobile Arena.
Ruffy posted a video to social media Sunday saying he’ll travel to Las Vegas on Monday, and that his services are available if the UFC needs him to step in for either McGregor or Holloway. Ruffy showed himself stepping on the scale around 185 pounds and said a cut to welterweight would be a non-issue.
“I made myself available for the Conor McGregor fight (vs.) Max Holloway,” Ruffy posted with his own Portuguese-to-English translation. “I’m going on a trip to Las Vegas.
“… Me against Conor McGregor, I believe it would be a very good fight. … But I believe it would be a really cool fight against Max Holloway and I believe in my knockout power. He’s a guy who doesn’t seek to play forward there all the time, but I go there to define the fights and I don’t miss my chances. It would be really cool to see this fight happen. I’m going. Let’s see what happens.”
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Although the odds likely are stacked against him getting an 11th-hour call to step in, it sounds like if that did come to fruition, he’s at least more expecting to have to step in for McGregor than Holloway.
Check out Ruffy’s post below.
