Outside Source
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.
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“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.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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