Mauricio Ruffy won King Green No. UFC 313. Photo: Reproduction/Twitter/UFC News
Maurício Ruffy stole the show at UFC 313 ao knock out King Green with a beautiful spinning kick in the first round. Undefeated for more than five years, the São Paulo native revealed that the move he used to win the fight was inspired by none other than soccer player Neymar Jr. According to the fighter, the way the Santos star conducts plays on the field drew his attention to the possibilities available in the octagon.
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In an interview with the North American website 'sherdog', the lightweight (up to 70,3 kg.) explained that the blow was the conclusion of a sequence of feints, which were made in a coordinated manner in order to confuse the opponent's perception.
“Neymar always does a sequence of dribbles that confuse his opponents. I just thought about how this could be applied in MMA, and this is the move I did with Green, a sequence of hand feints that confused him and allowed the shot to go in,” said the Brazilian.
Neymar's numbers against Corinthians
4 decisive passes
4 successful dribbles
6 duels won
2 fouls
3 times he fell pic.twitter.com/eK45sljHoE— Every time Neymar fell for Santos (@Ney_caindo) February 13, 2025
In addition to the victory, the shot also guaranteed a good financial gain for the Brazilian. Ruffy won one of the Performance of the Night awards and took home a bonus of US$ 50 thousand (more than R$ 290 thousand, at the current exchange rate). This was the second time he won the bonus.
Ruffy injured his knee shortly before UFC 313
Mauricio Ruffy is one of the UFC's biggest promises. Photo: Reproduction/Instagram/UFC India
As impressive as the knockout was, Luffy struggled to practice the kick during the camp of preparation. According to the Fighting Nerds star, a knee injury forced him to undergo meniscus surgery in February. Because of this, he was only able to kick in the last two weeks of training.
Furthermore, due to the speed of the kick, the fighter ended up not using it during the stand-up fighting sessions. However, having practiced the move for many years, it was possible to perfect the movements and land it during combat.
“I’ve been practicing this move alone for a long time. I have to avoid using it in sparring because there is no way to control the speed, which can hurt my training partners”, concluded the athlete, who has already beaten 11 opponents by knockout.
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