Mauricio Ruffy Has Something Special Planned For UFC Freedom 250

Ruffy has changed up his training camp for his last couple of fights and has spent time on the mats with reigning featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who has been putting him through the wringer on the ground to help Ruffy feel more comfortable in the discomfort. As Ruffy himself explained, it’s exactly what he needed to help improve his all-around MMA game as he looks to make an impact at the very top of the lightweight division.

WATCH: Mauricio Ruffy KOs King Green | UFC 313

“I’m trying to swim into very, very deep waters. And I think that's the one thing, it is putting me in difficult positions,” he explained. “‘Volk’ is a very good guy to do this. I mean, he will just keep piling on, and he's very good at actually putting you into challenges, difficult positions. I'm trying to go deeper and deeper in it.”

On a stacked UFC Freedom 250 fight card, Ruffy’s matchup with Chandler leaps off the page as a bout with high potential to deliver something memorable. The 29-year-old has built his reputation on spectacular finishes and said that he has something “special” planned for Chandler at the White House. However, he knows that he’ll have to fight smart and drain Chandler’s gas tank before unleashing his secret weapon on the American.

“We understand that Michael Chandler is a guy that spends a lot of energy and wastes a lot of energy with every position that he takes, with every effort that he makes,” he said. “We want to go and lure him into deep waters as much as possible, to wear him out, frustrate him, and just have him ready for that special thing that I've got coming for him.”

WATCH: Full Fight | Maurício Ruffy vs Rafael Fiziev

After earning a UFC contract with a ground-and-pound finish of Raimond Magomedaliev on Dana White’s Contender Series, Ruffy made an instant impact on his Octagon debut with a flying-knee finish of Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 301. A hard-won decision victory over Peru’s James Llontop followed before Ruffy added to his highlight reel with a spinning heel kick KO of King Green at UFC 313 that ranked second in UFC.com’s 2025 Knockouts of the Year list.

But with Ruffy’s momentum hitting top gear, he was brought down to earth, literally, by Benoit Saint Denis, who submitted the Brazilian last September. That defeat played a big part in Ruffy heading to train with Volkanovski to round out his game, and Ruffy returned with renewed confidence and knocked out fellow striking specialist Rafael Fiziev at UFC 325 to get back in the win column and set up potentially the biggest year of his career.

Currently ranked ninth at 155 pounds, Ruffy is looking to follow up that win with another win over notable opposition, but as a fighter who prides himself on being able to put on a show for the fans, Ruffy is well aware that winning alone is unlikely to be enough in the super-stacked UFC lightweight division.

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For Ruffy, the mission is clear: he has to win, and win in style. But that’s no different to the approach he’s taken to his whole career, and he’s excited to showcase his skills once again on June 14.

“I think it’s not just about winning. It’s the way that you win, the performance that you have, the way that you actually go out there and finish your opponents, and that's something that I do,” he stated. “If you think about it, it's a lot about the way that you do things and the way that you finish fights. Look at me. I was just yesterday fighting Rafael Fiziev, and here I am today, I'm fighting at the White House. It is all about how you do things, how you go about it, how you get your wins, besides winning, and that's how you get your opportunities for a title shot.”