EdsonBarboza sees plenty of himself in MauricioRuffy 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 hisfavorite fighters to watch. Ruffy is set to face ArmanTsarukyan in the UFC331 co-main event on Sept. 19 in Los Angeles and Barbozarecently broke down the matchup, having trained alongside Tsarukyanat American Top Team.
Barboza compares Mauricio Ruffy to Anderson Silva ahead ofArman Tsarukyan fight
Barboza gave his assessment of the matchup in an exclusiveinterview with Sherdog. He claims Ruffy reminds him of UFC legendAndersonSilva before drawing a comparison between Tsarukyan andKhabibNurmagomedov.
“Ruffy is one of my favorite fighters right now,” Barboza said.”He’s extremely creative and skilled, and he reminds me of AndersonSilva. He just needs one opportunity to finish a fight. I’d sayhe’s the improved version of me.”
While he thinks highly of Ruffy’s abilities, Barboza acknowledgedhow 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 you10,000 times until he takes you down. Khabib had more pressure. Hecontrols you more and is always one move ahead, but he doesn’treally look for the submission. Arman is different. He’s alwayslooking to advance and find the finish.”
He then highlighted Ruffy’s finishing ability while hyping up thematchup.
“Ruffy only needs one opportunity to finish the fight,” Barbozaconcluded. “All I can say is that it’s going to be a fight youcan’t miss — a classic striker vs. grappler matchup.”
Source: sports.yahoo.com
