A
feud between Fighting Nerds teammates Jean Silva (pictured) and
Mauricio Ruffy recently became very public. | Getty UFC
After spending three weeks in Las Vegas helping Fighting Nerds
members Jean Silva
and Bruna
Brasil in their
UFC fights, Flavio Álvaro arrived in São Paulo on Monday and
spoke to Sherdog.com about the conflict between Silva and Mauricio
Ruffy.
A black belt in jiu-jitsu with over 60 Vale Tudo fights and one of
the main figures responsible for grappling training on the team,
Álvaro assures that he wasn’t upset by Ruffy’s statement saying
that training with Volkanovski made him realize he knew nothing
about grappling.
“Ruffy hadn’t shown up for grappling training at
The Fighting Nerds for a long time,” Alvaro said. “He always
focused on striking with us, and you can see his excellence in that
area. This change of scenery to Australia certainly motivated him
to train grappling, and I think that’s very positive. In fact, he
didn’t mean to belittle the Fighting Nerds or the grappling
coaches.”
To make that clear, Alvaro explained the different structure of
training among Fighting Nerds and other teams.
“During my career as a professional fighter I trained with some of
the biggest Brazilian teams like Chute Boxe, BTT, 011. All those
teams were like great families. What most people don’t understand
is that Fighting Nerds is not a great family. Fighting Nerd is a
cluster of families,” Alvaro said. “[Caio] Borralho has his team.
Ruffy [has]his, actually he trains grappling with master Pardal.
Prates [has] his. Actually, Jean and Ruffy haven’t trained together
for a long time.”
Alvaro believes that even though Silva declared that his friendship
with Ruffy was over, they will all remain under the Fighting Nerds
umbrella.
“That´s not the first internal disagreement we had,” Alvaro said.
“Surely that was the first that leaked to the press and ended up
getting bigger than it really is. One thing I can tell you, all the
problems were solved under the leadership of Pablo Sucupira.… And I
believe this time will be no different.”
Silva’s Title Prospects
While Volkanovski is expected to face the winner of the
UFC London main event pitting Movsar
Evloev against Lerone
Murphy, Alvaro still has hope that his fighter will end 2026
with featherweight gold.
“I really think that Volkanovski vs. Jean is the fight to be made,”
he said. “The other contender just makes boring fights. Look at the
performance of Jean in all his fights. Volkanovski is already
consecrated among the GOATS of the division, but we are in the
“Lord´s” era. Jean is the man to beat Volkanovski and I hope UFC
gives us that opportunity next. But If UFC asks us to face
[Yair
Rodriguez], Jean will be ready.”