Kevin Ruart, 32, of Geneva, Switzerland competes in the welterweight division of BRAVE Combat Federation. He was born in Paris, France to a father is from Guadalupe and a mother from Martinique.
When Ruart was 14 years old, he moved to Guadalupe and when he turned 22, he went back to Paris. Eventually, he moved to Switzerland where he started his MMA training.
“I’m ready for anybody,” Ruart told me in an exclusive interview on July 25, 2020. “That’s why I do MMA. I wanna fight anybody and I wanna fight the best so that’s why I’m here.”
I asked Ruart who his MMA idol was. He answered, “That’s my coach, Karl Amoussou.”
Born in Draguignan, France, Karl “Psycho” Amoussou, 34, started his professional MMA career in 2006 as a middleweight but he eventually moved to welterweight. He competed in various promotions including Cage Warriors, Strikeforce, Bellator MMA, Abu Dhabi Waariors, Venator Fighting Championship and most recently BRAVE CF.
“When I started MMA, I started looking who was the best French fighter in my category, in my weight division, and it was Karl Amoussou at that time,” Ruart told me. “It was like nine years ago. He was the best French fighter, a crazy man, muscular guy. He was really tough.”
“I was like, ‘I wanna do MMA, I need to beat this guy’ and eight years later, it happened,” Ruart continued. “Karl Amoussou went to move in Switzerland, in Geneva, where I live and he ended up being my coach so now my idol and my rival is my coach and my best friend so that’s crazy.”
I then asked Ruart about his dream opponent. He mentioned reigning BRAVE CF Welterweight World Champion Jarrah “The Jordanian Lion” Al-Selawe, 26, of Amman, Jordan and Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight fighter Jorge “Gamebred” Masvidal, 35, of Miami, Florida, United States.
“Of course, (I want to fight) Jarrah Al Selawe because he has the belt,” Ruart told me. “I really would like to go with Masvidal.”
Competing professionally since 2003, Masvidal has earned 35 wins, 16 of which are via knockout and two are via submission. Out of Amoussour’s 24 professional MMA wins, 13 are via submission and seven are via knockout.
As for Ruart, he currently has eight professional MMA wins, which include four submissions and three knockouts. He is confident that he can knock out anybody with his right hand.
“It’s hard to tell,” Ruart said when I asked if he is a better fighter standing up or on the ground. “I’m better in stand-up, I’d say I prefer stand-up but I’m good everywhere.”
Recently, three former BRAVE CF fighters successfully made their respective UFC debuts in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates namely Mounir “Sniper” Lazzez, 32, of Tunisia and the UAE, Amir “The Prince” Albazi, 26, of Iraq, Sweden and England and Khamzat “Borz” Chimaev (Хамзат Чимаев), 26, of Sweden. I asked Ruart if he sees himself competing in the UFC in the future.
“I don’t know,” Ruart replied. “Of course, I think that’s the dream of all fighters in MMA, to go in the UFC to fight.”
On July 27, 2020, Ruart will fight undefeated mixed martial artist Ion Surdu, 25, of Moldova and Romania in the welterweight division at “BRAVE CF 36” at Berăria H in Bucharest, Romania. This will be the French-Swiss contender’s second outing in BRAVE CF while his Moldovan-Romanian opponent is making his debut in the Bahrain-based MMA promotion.
“I’m ready to fight anybody even in the middleweight division, welterweight division, anybody. I don’t really give a f—. Ion Surdu is just a step.”
Currently, Ruart holds a professional MMA record of 8 wins and 3 losses. To fighters who are still starting their MMA career, his advice is, “Don’t quit.”
“Don’t quit,” Ruart emphasized. “You will fail. You will fail again and again and again but the solution is not to quit. Never quit. Just keep going and train hard. If you don’t quit, you will go somewhere.”
CONAN Daily 