{"id":1602954,"date":"2024-10-30T10:03:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportscasting.com\/?p=1602954"},"modified":"2024-10-30T10:03:37","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:03:37","slug":"rising-star-mauricio-ruffy-secures-new-opponent-for-ufc-309","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportscasting.com\/news\/rising-star-mauricio-ruffy-secures-new-opponent-for-ufc-309\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising Star Mauricio Ruffy Secures New Opponent for UFC 309"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a dramatic turn of events, the highly anticipated UFC 309 card has undergone a last-minute change. Mauricio Ruffy, the promising lightweight prospect who burst onto the scene with a spectacular debut earlier this year, has finally secured a new opponent for the November 16th event at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">C.Campbell out. Mauricio Ruffy will now fight James Llontop at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC309?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC309<\/a> on November 16th. (first rep. Te La Cant\u00e9 MMA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MMA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MMA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFCESPN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFCESPN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFC2024?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFC2024<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UFCNY?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UFCNY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MfiLYqgGnP\">pic.twitter.com\/MfiLYqgGnP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Marcel Dorff \ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\udde9 (@BigMarcel24) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BigMarcel24\/status\/1851409931666182147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 29, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>James Llontop has been tapped to face Ruffy after the original matchup with Charlie Campbell fell through. This development comes as a relief to both fans and the UFC, who have been struggling to keep Ruffy on the card. The Fighting Nerds prodigy has faced a series of booking challenges since his impressive first-round knockout of Jamie Mullarkey in May.<\/p>\n<p>Ruffy&#8217;s journey to his sophomore UFC appearance has been anything but smooth. The promotion has made multiple attempts to book him on pay-per-view events, including UFC 303 and UFC 307, before finally landing on UFC 309. Each time, finding a willing opponent proved to be a significant hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>Charlie Campbell&#8217;s withdrawal marks the latest setback in this saga. While the exact reasons for Campbell&#8217;s exit have not been disclosed, it&#8217;s another chapter in what has become a frustrating process for Ruffy and his team.<\/p>\n<p>James Llontop enters this bout with a chip on his shoulder. Despite an 0-2 record in the UFC, Llontop has shown flashes of potential. His close fight with Slava Borshchev demonstrated his striking prowess, particularly against a skilled kickboxer. This matchup presents an opportunity for Llontop to upset the apple cart and derail the Ruffy hype train.<\/p>\n<p>For Mauricio Ruffy, this fight is about more than just maintaining momentum. The Fighting Nerds camp has consistently touted him as their most promising talent, a claim that has raised eyebrows and expectations in equal measure1. A dominant performance against Llontop could propel Ruffy into conversations about top-15 opponents in the stacked lightweight division.<\/p>\n<h2>Full UFC 309 Fight Card<\/h2>\n<p><strong>MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Champion Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic \u2013 for heavyweight title<\/li>\n<li>Michael Chandler vs. Charles Oliveira \u2013 five-round bout<\/li>\n<li>Viviane Aruajo vs. Karine Silva<\/li>\n<li>Paul Craig vs. Bo Nickal<\/li>\n<li>Eryk Anders vs. Chris Weidman<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNews, 8 p.m. ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mauricio Ruffy vs. James Llontop<\/li>\n<li>Nikita Krylov vs. Azamat Murzakanov<\/li>\n<li>Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee<\/li>\n<li>Damon Jackson vs. Jim Miller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>EARLY PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 6 p.m. ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lucas Almeida vs. David Onama<\/li>\n<li>Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Mickey Gall<\/li>\n<li>Oban Elliott vs. Bassil Hafez<\/li>\n<li>Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a dramatic turn of events, the highly anticipated UFC 309 card has undergone a last-minute change. Mauricio Ruffy, the promising lightweight prospect who burst onto the scene with a spectacular debut earlier this year, has finally secured a new opponent for the November 16th event at Madison Square Garden. C.Campbell out. Mauricio Ruffy will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":330,"featured_media":1602961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10853],"tags":[448238],"class_list":["post-1602954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ufc","tag-ufc-309"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.5 (Yoast SEO v23.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rising Star Mauricio Ruffy Secures New Opponent for UFC 309<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mauricio Ruffy has finally secured a new opponent for the November 16th event at Madison Square Garden as he takes on James Llontop.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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