Benoit Saint Denis completely dominated Mauricio Ruffy tonight at UFC Fight Night 258 by using his striking to disguise takedown attempts and control the action on top, before finding a submission finish in the second round.

Round One

Body kick forSaint Denis to start. He reaches for a leg but doesn’t commit to it. Instead BSD attempts head kick.

Saint Denis commits to a takedown, settles for the clinch, but then goes back to the takedown and lands it, and we’re still in the first minute.

BSD moves to side control and then into full mount. Ruffy rolls to his knees, but Saint Denis gets the body triangle in. He’s starting to slip off though and Ruffy ends up on top.

Ruffy opts to stand back up and they go back to striking range. Head kick attempt from BSD. Saint Denis drives in and lands another takedown close to the cage.

Ruffy with his back to the cage, but BSD manages to work around to it anyway, then goes into full mount.

Ruffy scrambles to his feet with BSD still clinched up. Ruffy reverses the clinch, but BSD returns the favor. A couple of knees from Saint Denis and Ruffy complains they strayed to the groin, so after a delayed reaction from ref Herb Dean he does opt to give him a time-out.

Ruffy takes time to recover and then they get back to it. High kick from BSD and then tries to clinch, but isn’t able to this time.

Another high kick from BSD. Now one to the body. Again trying to kick upstairs and Ruffy hasn’t been able to settle into any kind of striking rhythm yet as the round comes to an end.

Round Two

Body kick from Saint Denis. He lands another. Flying knee from Ruffy grazes the target, but only lightly.

Saint Denis works for a takedown, but this time its Ruffy who ends up on top. BSD kicks him off though and they go back upright.

Body kick for Saint Denis. BSD able to clinch up against the cage again. He’s trying to get the fight to the mat, but Ruffy stays upright for now. Saint Denis keeps working though and does finally get him down, and is quickly onto his back.

Saint Denis puts in the body triangle and starts landing ground-and-pound. Now Saint Denis goes or the rear-naked choke, but it’s not quite under the chin. BSD keeps squeezing regardless and Ruffy taps out at 2.56mins of the second round!