Mauricio Ruffy bounced back in emphatic fashion from his first loss in the octagon by stopping Rafael Fiziev in the second round in their main card matchup at UFC 325.
While Ruffy had to fend off some strong
striking early, he was slowly but surely setting up a nasty lead jab that was constantly giving Fiziev problems. After stabbing away at Fiziev with several jabs, Ruffy launched a devastating straight right that rocked the veteran lightweight contender.
From there, Ruffy just continued his attack until Fiziev faded from the storm with the referee stopping the fight at 4:30 in the second round.
“I’m very happy to be here,” Ruffy said after the win. “That was the game plan. The game plan wasn’t the challenge, the challenge was the training camp. Dana [White], Hunter Campbell — you see me fight, you know my style, how about Paddy Pimblett? How about Conor McGregor?”
As the action got started, Fiziev was controlling the center of the cage, walking Ruffy down and then uncorking big punches including a nasty left hook that slipped through the Brazilian’s defense. Ruffy eventually circled away from the cage but he was struggling to deal with Fiziev’s speed and accuracy.
Fiziev was also chopping away at Ruffy’s lead leg, which was showing visible signs of damage midway through the opening round. Tentative early, Ruffy finally came alive with a lightning quick head kick and then settling into a rhythm on the feet with several stiff jabs slipping through Fiziev’s defense.
It was clear that Fiziev wanted to control the distance as he pushed forward and refused to allow Ruffy to really find his range. Still, Ruffy was repeatedly firing off his lead jab trying to back Fiziev off.
That punch really paid off when Ruffy unloaded another straight right hand and this one connected clean as Fiziev was knocked backwards. Ruffy followed up with a barrage of punches as Fiziev desperately tried to survive but he was aborbing a lot of damage.
Finally with Fiziev collapsed against the cage, Ruffy just fired off shots in succession until the referee had no choice but to stop the fight.
It was a statement performance from Ruffy after he suffered a loss to Benoit Saint Denis in his previous outing, which led to a change in training camps and coaches. The move paid off with Ruffy putting Fiziev away and taking a big step forward in the lightweight division.
