post-fight press conference<\/a>. \u201cI lost myself before the Dustin Poirier fight and for one year, 2024. I have been learning a lot and I made a lot of mistakes and I think my head got big. I made a lot of problems for myself, not focusing anymore on the fight game and [being] the best fighter in the world, which is what I enjoy doing.<\/p>\n\u201cNow I\u2019m back at it and I can\u2019t wait to showcase it by facing a guy like Arman [Tsarukyan], [Dan] Hooker, like [Mateusz] Gamrot, anybody inside the top 10. I know they wanted to make Arman vs. Gamrot, they wanted to make me vs. Gamrot, it didn\u2019t work, maybe me vs. Arman because obviously [Gamrot and Arman already fought], so I don\u2019t know what will be the UFC\u2019s plans. I refuse nobody, I\u2019m back at the version of myself, which is fight as much as possible and win as much as possible no matter the opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saint Denis has a roaring French crowd behind him at Accor Arena and he made the most of the support, taking the fight to Ruffy right away and using his wrestling to force the Brazilian striker to deal with him on the mat. Ruffy defended well, but couldn\u2019t prevent Saint Denis from repeatedly scoring takedowns.<\/p>\n
Two of Ruffy\u2019s three UFC fights were won by highlight-reel knockout, so Saint Denis made sure to respect his opponent\u2019s skills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew he was dangerous on the counter,\u201d Saint Denis said. \u201cHe\u2019s explosive in attack, too. He\u2019s one of the most dangerous opponents, especially at the start of the round when he\u2019s not tired. I just fought in my style. I mixed it up and I tired him out and I put him in my universe, which is war. I\u2019m the \u2018God of War\u2019 and since the age of 19 I\u2019ve been doing all kinds of warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Tsarukyan, Hooker, and Gamrot, Saint Denis added he\u2019d be thrilled to match up with fan favorite Justin Gaethje. Saint Denis said in his post-fight interview that he\u2019s ready to book another bout soon if it\u2019s against a top 10 opponent, even if he\u2019s called upon on short notice.<\/p>\n
Saint Denis referenced his past as a member of the French military to explain how he re-calibrated his mind set.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went back to being the soldier inside the cage,\u201d Saint Denis said. \u201cFocusing on camp and getting trained and you go the version of the God of War back. The old version that believes in himself and is only focusing on [being] the best fighter in the world and working out for this every day and I\u2019m happy for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benoit Saint Denis is ready to challenge for a top 10 spot again. Three years ago, Saint Denis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-128523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}