A new challenger for Benoit Saint-Denis has surfaced after his UFC 315 bout fell through.
UFC lightweight contender Benoit Saint-Denis was supposed to face Joel Alvarez on the UFC 315 main card on Saturday in Montreal. But just days before the event, Alvarez reportedly withdrew due to an undisclosed injury, and Saint-Denis isn’t expected to get a short-notice replacement opponent.
That leaves Saint-Denis in an uncomfortable spot as he looks to bounce back from consecutive TKO losses in 2024. The French brawler was on a roll leading up to his current skid, with a flurry of knockouts that catapulted him into the lightweight Top 15.
Saint-Denis might not get the opportunity to kick off the UFC 315 main card after all, but an intriguing name is in the mix to face him after a recent callout.
Mauricio Ruffy calls out Benoit Saint-Denis after UFC 315 fight news
Despite his recent struggles, Saint-Denis remains one of the most dangerous contenders in the lightweight division and has asserted himself as a UFC star. Before his current losing skid, Saint-Denis hadn’t lost back-to-back fights in his combat sports career.
As we await clarity on Saint-Denis’s status for UFC 315 from the UFC brass, a potential replacement opponent made his presence known on social media just hours after Alvarez’s pullout.
In a recent post to X, UFC lightweight Mauricio Ruffy sent a message to UFC CEO Dana White and the matchmakers.
“Hey, UFC! How about a main event in a Fight Night against Saint Denis?” Ruffy posted Saturday.
Ruffy most recently defeated King Green with a ridiculous head-kick knockout at UFC 313 in March. He’s unbeaten in his UFC tenure, as the Dana White’s Contender Series alum has won all three of his Octagon bookings.
As of this writing, Saint-Denis hasn’t responded to Ruffy’s post. Saint-Denis most recently fell to Renato Moicano at UFC Paris in September.
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Ruffy is quickly ascending the lightweight ranks and is knocking on the door of a potential spot in the Top 15. A win over an opponent of Saint-Denis’s caliber would almost certainly catapult him into the rankings.
Ruffy, whose style has been compared to Conor McGregor, recently promised McGregor that he intends to defeat Team Khabib’s Islam Makhachev in a future matchup. McGregor fell to Makhachev’s mentor and UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.
But facing Saint-Denis, if the Ruffy fight comes to fruition, isn’t an easy challenge to face. Before his recent losses to Dustin Poirier and Moicano, Saint-Denis earned a wild head-kick knockout over Matt Frevola at UFC 295 to extend his five-fight win streak.