Estranged Coach: Clear Path to Victory for Benoit St. Denis at UFC Paris in September

Daniel Woirin (left) and Benoit St. Denis. | 📷: Marcelo Alonso/Sherdog

Benoit St. Denis will do battle with Mauricio Ruffy in a UFC Fight Night 258 lightweight showcase on Sept. 6 at Accor Arena in Paris. Middleweights Nassordine Imavov and Caio Borralho are scheduled to headline the event, as the Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to France for the first time in nearly a year.

“I think Ruffy is faster than him in the standup, but if Benoit can take him down, he has a great chance to win,” said French kickboxer Daniel Woirin, who brought St. Denis to the UFC three-plus years ago and coached him until his March 2024 defeat to Dustin Poirier. “In my opinion, this fight will be decided by the one who imposes his game.”

St. Denis holds a 6-3 record across his nine appearances in the UFC. Woirin first heard about former French Special Forces operator in 2019 and decided to take him under his wing.

“He was a very tough guy with good jiu-jitsu, but he was totally raw in MMA,” Woirin said. “I got him from zero and put him the UFC two years later, but unfortunately, money and ego changed him. Right after the Poirier fight, he fired me by phone and didn’t pay me. Everybody in France was shocked by that, but unfortunately, that’s part of a trainer’s life. I hope one day that changes and fighters start to respect the coaches and the ones who helped them to reach their goals.”

Woirin pointed to impressive growth of MMA in France ahead of the UFC’s latest stop in the country but bemoaned the politics he believes to be standing in its way.

“It’s getting really popular, but unfortunately, boxing dominates the MMA Federation,” he said. “To be a cornerman in France, for example, you need to have a diploma from their federation.”

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com

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