RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Barboza sees plenty of himself in Mauricio
Ruffy and believes the surging Brazilian has become an
“improved version” of him.
Barboza, who recently retired from the
Ultimate Fighting Championship , claims Ruffy is one of his
favorite fighters to watch. Ruffy is set to face Arman
Tsarukyan in the UFC
331 co-main event on Sept. 19 in Los Angeles and Barboza
recently broke down the matchup, having trained alongside Tsarukyan
at
American Top Team . Barboza compares Mauricio Ruffy to Anderson Silva ahead of
Arman Tsarukyan fight
Barboza gave his assessment of the matchup in an exclusive
interview with Sherdog. He claims Ruffy reminds him of UFC legend
Anderson
Silva before drawing a comparison between Tsarukyan and
Khabib
Nurmagomedov .
“Ruffy is one of my favorite fighters right now,” Barboza said.
“He’s extremely creative and skilled, and he reminds me of Anderson
Silva. He just needs one opportunity to finish a fight. I’d say
he’s the improved version of me.”
While he thinks highly of Ruffy's abilities, Barboza acknowledged
how good Tsarukyan is while comparing the latter to Nurmagomedov,
who he faced back in 2017.
“I’ve had the opportunity to train many times with Arman at ATT,”
Barboza added. “He’s impressive. If he needs to, he’ll come at you
10,000 times until he takes you down. Khabib had more pressure. He
controls you more and is always one move ahead, but he doesn’t
really look for the submission. Arman is different. He’s always
looking to advance and find the finish.”
He then highlighted Ruffy’s finishing ability while hyping up the
matchup.
“Ruffy only needs one opportunity to finish the fight,” Barboza
concluded. “All I can say is that it’s going to be a fight you
can’t miss — a classic striker vs. grappler matchup.”
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