Moving from Peru to join Sanford MMA helped UFC’s Claudio Puelles become a better fighter

In March, Claudio Puelles decided to leave his native homeland Lima, Peru, for a chance to better himself as an MMA fighter.

That brought him to South Florida, where he is a member of the outstanding Sanford MMA team.

With a friend already training at Sanford MMA and his father, Sandro, already living in Miami, it made for an easier country-to-country transition for Puelles.

It didn’t take long for him to realize he made the right decision.

Led by Henri Hooft and Greg Jones, Sanford is a one-stop training center based in Deerfield Beach.

Being at Sanford MMA with that high-level type of coaches and fighters made Puelles work harder and work smarter.

Puelles (10-2) is preparing for his next bout, which is Saturday, Dec. 4 on the prelims of UFC Fight Night on ESPN: Font vs. Aldo. Puelles battles Chris Gruetzemacher (15-4) in a lightweight contest.

In my video interview with UFC fighter Claudio “El Nino” Puelles, he discusses UFC Fight Night, Sanford MMA, South Florida, Peru, MMA start, family, sports and more.

Puelles, 25, has won three consecutive fights, five of his last six. Gruetzemcher, 35, won two of his last three fights.

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Jim Varsallone

Miami Herald

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Jim Varsallone writes a high school sports column twice a week, featuring top performers in all varsity sports (boys and girls) in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He also covers pro wrestling, something he’s done since his college days in the late 1980s. Now in his fifth decade of coverage, he currently follows WWE (Raw, SmackDown and NXT), AEW, Ring of Honor, TNA Impact Wrestling, MLW, WOW, NWA, and the South Florida indies, mainly CCW. He writes MMA, too -- mostly profile stories and video interviews with American Top Team and Sanford MMA fighters in South Florida. As for pro wrestling, he writes feature stories and profile pieces, updates upcoming show schedules in South Florida, photographs the action and interviews talent (audio and video) -- sharing the content here and via social media on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel). Support my work with a digital subscription