Mauricio Ruffy will have to figure out his corner situation for
his next fight. | Getty/UFC
The fact that Jean Silva
was invited to attend
UFC London was viewed by some as a way to pressure Movsar
Evloev and Lerone
Murphy to finish their title eliminator before the fifth
round.
That didn’t happen, however, as the Russian won a majority decision
after 25 competitive minutes. That result kept Jean Silva’s
hopes alive of getting the next featherweight title shot and
greatly reduced Mauricio
Ruffy’s chances of doing his training camp at
The Fighting Nerds.
In an interview with Brazilian journalist Diego Ribas
published on Ag.Fight’s YouTube channel last Thursday, Pablo
Sucupira revealed details of his last conversation with Ruffy about
his problems with Silva and the possibility of doing his camp for
Michael
Chandler at The Fighting Nerds. Sucupira said he wouldn’t have
any problem training Ruffy at Cornerman’s facilities, which are
often used by Fighting Nerds athletes.
A Company, Not a Family
“In modern MMA, a team is no longer a family, but a company, which
has several families,” Sucupira said. “My role is to manage this
company. I don’t need Jean and Ruffy to be friends. The fact that
their friendship is strained doesn’t prevent them from continuing
to respect each other.”
Sucupira, who revealed that he will have a more definitive
conversation with Ruffy on that topic this week, made one condition
clear: UFC featherweight champ Alexander
Volkanovski can’t be part of his corner at the White House
event
“If Volkanovski is in his corner in the next fight, I don’t feel
comfortable being there. After all, I’m preparing an athlete to
fight him,” said Sucupira, who is rooting for a happy ending.
“I owe everything I’ve achieved as a coach to these four (Silva,
Ruffy, Carlos
Prates and Caio
Borralho). It’s been more than 10 years of working together. I
have enormous admiration and respect for all of them and I would
like to be by their side all the way to the belt, but I’m not going
to change the rules to keep anyone on the team.”