UFC 301 took place on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where on the undercard we saw a promising fighter take an incredible victory.
UFC debutant takes impressive victory – compared to Conor McGregor
Contender Series qualifiers debuted on the undercard Mauricio Ruffy. The fighter who spent his last fights at welterweight moved down to 155 lbs to take on Jamie Mullarkey in his UFC debut.
The 30-year-old won his UFC contract after knocking out Raimond Magomedeliev in round three of that season of Dana White’s Contender Series.
Jamie Mullarkey, meanwhile, was coming off a brutal first-round knockout loss to Nasrat Haqparast. He now hoped to return to the victory column.
Brazilian product Luffy has a special fighting style where he keeps his hands low and is light on his feet. He had a lot of early success against the Australian Mullarkey.
Early in the match, Luffy began to jab Mullarkey with his lightning fast and powerful right hand and had also severely injured his opponent’s leg.
Although Mullarkey is known for his big fighting heart and determination, Luffy began to pull away during the exchanges. After only half of the opening round, blood dripped from Mullarkey’s nose.
As Luffy showed off his exhilarating karate style, the UFC expert noted Din Thomas during the broadcast that the fighter reminded him of a young Conor McGregor. His colleagues Paul Felder and Daniel Cormier agreed to this as well.
Shortly after this, Luffy landed a flurry of punches to Mullarkey’s chin and dropped him. The Australian showed great heart and got to his feet but was brought down again by a terrifying flying knee and an uppercut.
The judge Mike Beltran had then seen enough and saved Mullarkey from even more harm.
Varnar Islam Makhachev
After his debut at home in Rio chose Mauricio Ruffy to send a warning to the current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. He said the following in the Octagon according to Bloodyelbow:
That’s me and I have a message for Islam Makhachev, a nice message. Hey (Islam) enjoy your days at the top I know you’re upset because I beat your friend but enjoy your days because a new king is coming.
”A new king is coming.”
Mauricio Ruffy has a message for Islam 👀#UFC301 pic.twitter.com/8etD0Qnuul
— UFC (@ufc) May 4, 2024
Even though Mullarkey is not in the top-15 in the lightweight division, he could very well now be matched against someone just outside or inside the rankings already in his second UFC fight.
