Benoit Saint Denis dominates, taps Mauricio Ruffy

In the co-main event of UFC Fight Night 258 at Accor Arena in Paris, France, Saint Denis (15-3 MMA, 7-3 UFC) turned in a dominant performance against Mauricio Ruffy. The Frechman’s forward pressure was too much for Ruffy (12-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) to deal with, leading to a submission stoppage at 2:56 of Round 2.

Saint Denis wasted little time bringing the fight to Ruffy. The grappling game was a big area of success for Saint Denis early in the fight, keeping Ruffy away from his distance striking game. The crowd roared and chanted at the top of their lungs throughout the round while the Frenchman controlled the fight.

Ruffy aimed to change the fight early in the second round as he tried to stop Saint Denis’ forward pressure with strikes. Just when Ruffy was finding his target, Saint Denis was able to get back to his grappling game to remain in control. Soon enough, Saint Denis was on the back and slapped on a rear-naked choke. At first, Ruffy appeared to be able to deal with it, but the squeeze kept getting tighter and tighter until he tapped.

After dropping back-to-back fights last year, Saint Denis has now made it back-to-back stoppage victories. In May at UFC 315, Saint Denis submitted Kyle Prepolec in the second round with an arm triangle and followed it up with a rear-naked choke of Ruffy to improve to 7-3 in his UFC run.