Ruffy Blames Himself for Brutal Late KO Loss to Tsarukyan at UFC 331

Mauricio Ruffy isn't hiding from what happened. Five days after Arman Tsarukyan flattened him with seconds left in the opening round of their UFC 331 co-main event, the Brazilian broke his silence to tell fans exactly where it went wrong — and the short version is that he blames himself.

The bout was a lightweight title eliminator, and for most of that first round the story was going Ruffy's way. He'd taken the fight on roughly six weeks' notice — he specified six weeks and four days — and still walked in confident enough to try to win it the hard way. Then Tsarukyan, the division's #2 contender, caught him and put him out cold. Ruffy dropped to 14-3, while Tsarukyan moved to 24-3 with his tenth career knockout.

In his statement Ruffy said he'd landed a flash knockdown, felt Tsarukyan's power draining, and even believed an elbow to the ribs had hurt his opponent badly. He was convinced he'd finish the job in the second round. That certainty is exactly what cost him.

The Four Seconds That Ended It

Ruffy explained that when his corner shouted there were ten seconds left and Tsarukyan shot for a takedown, he read it as good news — let the Armenian burn energy, reset, finish him next round. Instead he relaxed on defense, something he says he never does, and paid for it with four seconds on the clock. He owned the mistake fully, calling it his carelessness and Tsarukyan's merit, and made a point of praising his opponent's skill.

The numbers make the finish sting a little more. Ruffy is a genuine knockout artist — 13 of his 14 wins have come by KO or TKO, with zero submissions on his ledger — so getting caught defending a takedown late is the kind of lapse he won't want to repeat. This was his second UFC loss, following a defeat to Benoit Saint Denis last September, and it snapped a two-fight win streak.

Ruffy also apologized to his fans, acknowledging that backing a fighter through a loss isn't easy, and framed the whole thing as part of his growth. For Tsarukyan, sitting at #2, the knockout keeps him firmly in the title conversation. For Ruffy at #7, it's a hard lesson delivered in the final seconds of a fight he was winning.