Idman.biz
UFC Brazilian lightweight fighter Mauricio Ruffi has shared details of his preparation for the fight with Azerbaijani fighter Rafael Fiziev. The fight is scheduled to take place on January 31, 2026 at the UFC 325 tournament in Sydney, Australia, Idman.Biz reports.
According to Ruffi, he started preparing before the official announcement and spent part of his training camp in Thailand, at the "Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA" gym. There, the fighter trained alongside Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya.
In an interview with "Ag Fight", Ruffi said that he was expecting a serious opponent, but when he found out that he would fight with the top-ranked representative of the division, he had pleasant feelings. According to him, the UFC promised him a "big fight" and he is completely satisfied with the "matchup" (officially assigned fight pairing) he received.
The Brazilian also spoke about the high loads during preparation and emphasized that individual training sessions lasted about four hours and included footwork, sparring, as well as long-term wrestling and positional work.
He plans to spend the next stage of preparation in his native Brazil. There, he trains every day in the "Fighting Nerds" team under the leadership of Pablo Susupira. About four weeks before the fight, Ruffi plans to travel to Australia, where he will finalize his preparation with his coach and polish the pre-fight tactical details.
It should be reminded that Rafael Fiziev was supposed to fight another Brazilian, Charles Oliveira, on October 11 this year at the UFC Rio de Janeiro tournament, but the fight did not take place due to a knee injury of the Azerbaijani athlete.
