UFC Vegas 52 Fighter to Watch: Claudio Puelles

Unheralded Peruvian lightweight has stitched together four straight wins over heading into showdown with Clay Guida on Saturday

Name: Claudio Puelles
Nickname: El Niño
Record: 11-2 overall, 4-1 UFC
Division: Lightweight
Team: Sanford MMA
Opponent: Clay Guida (37-21 overall, 17-15 UFC)

Claudio Puelles has literally grown up inside the Octagon.

Go back and look at his debut opposite Martin Bravo in the TUF: Latin America 3 lightweight tournament finale — he was seven months removed from celebrating his 20th birthday, all fresh-faced and full of smiles before walking into the center of the Octagon and get into a fist-fight. He was wiry, not yet having finished growing or started to fill out his frame.

Puelles lost that fight that and began down a strange path that would see him fight just twice more before last summer. He wasn’t hurt. He wasn’t suspended. There were a couple fights that fell through, but mostly, he was a young, inexperienced fighter that wasn’t exactly blowing up Sean Shelby’s phone trying to get a fight.

And then the pandemic hit, confining him to his native Peru for longer than he anticipated, and prompted him to make the move to the United States. He settled in South Florida and started training at Sanford MMA before finally making his return to the Octagon last June against Jordan Leavitt.

After losing the first round of that fight, Puelles controlled the final two frames, out-wrestling the Contender Series grad, who picked up a second consecutive win since that contest last weekend. He then made a quick (for him) turnaround to face Chris Gruetzemacher in December, scoring a third-round submission win via kneebar, the second time he’s caught that uncommon hold inside the UFC cage.

Puelles is one of those guys that escaped the limelight of being a 20-year-old on the UFC stage initially because he was competing on TUF: Latin America 3 and then fought sporadically on the undercard of international events that all kinds of people paid very little attention to at the time. He wasn’t around enough to be on anyone’s radar, and when he returned last year, the soon-to-be 26-year-old (his birthday is Thursday) was positioned as the guy facing the Contender Series grad who slammed Matt Wiman into the land of whispers of ghosts.

Even I wasn’t all that psyched about Puelles ahead of his fight with Leavitt in June, but I shifted course following his victory and felt like one of the few people excited for his return in December. From One Question ahead of that contest:

Claudio Puelles vs. Chris Gruetzemacher
Q: Is anyone else keeping an eye on Claudio Puelles?

Claudio Puelles debuted in the UFC on November 5, 2016, losing to Martin Bravo. He’s only fought three times since, winning all three, and only turned 25 in April, which means he reached the UFC when he was 20.

Normally, when dudes reach the UFC at 20, we all freak out, because that is not how this shit is supposed to work, but because he was on TUF: Latin America and he lost and he didn’t fight again for a couple years, folks just forgot about CP (yeah, I’m calling him CP now) and never came back around to him.

But here’s the thing: he dominated Jordan Leavitt last time out, and Jordan Leavitt looked very good in his debut and was unbeaten going into that fight. Puelles hasn’t fought in nearly two years, but rolled into the cage and completely out-hustled “The Monkey King” for three rounds, running his winning streak to three and his record to 10-2 overall.

Now this athletic, six-foot-tall lightweight who trains at an elite camp (Sanford MMA), got to the big stage at a freakishly young age and is coming off a very good win is ready to step back into the Octagon and I feel like I’m the only person that is jazzed to see what he does next.

I’m calling it now, friends: Claudio Puelles is someone to pay attention to the in lightweight division.

I don’t post this to boast or pat myself on the back Barry Horowitz-style, but because (1) I want to show I’m not just saying I was intrigued retroactively now that he’s doing well, (2) because everything that I said then is bolstered even more now that he’s added a fourth straight victory to his resume, and (3) he’s now facing Guida in a main card clash this weekend and this is exactly why I drone on so much about paying attention to everyone because they’re eventually going to land in place where you need to know something about them and are caught unaware.

Folks are going to dismiss this fight as being “just another fight” or focus on it from the Guida side of things because he’s the known commodity, but this fight is all about Puelles, baby, and if you’ve reach this point knowing very little about him and unaware of his exploits last year, that’s on you and you alone.

And I stand by what I said ahead of that fight with Gruetzemacher too: I think Puelles is someone we should be paying close attention to in the lightweight division.

There are few gyms that are better suited for helping a young, athletic, fluid fighter maximize their skills and be ready to climb the ranks than Sanford MMA, especially if that fighter competes anywhere between ‘35 and ‘70, because the number of elite training partners available is extremely high, and from a coaching standpoint, the combo of Henri Hooft and Greg Jones is a perfect match for the kind of fighter Puelles looks like he’s going to be.

Puelles has strong, natural grappling tendencies, showing good control and a clear penchant for attacking the kneebar, but not to the point that it’s a gimmick that he relies on too much. In each of the two instances where he’s finished it in the UFC, it’s come at a point where it’s a risk that is worth taking and catches his opponents off guard.

His striking is still coming along, but he has good size, solid athleticism and fluidity, and should continue to sharpen his kickboxing skills working with Hooft and the cast of teammates he’s surrounded by in Deerfield Beach. Remember — he’s still at least a year away from what we generally consider a person’s athletic prime, has only had 13 pro fights, and has really only been training with a top-flight team for a year.

Give him another two or three years on comparable development and there is no reason Puelles can’t become a quality lightweight that climbs to the fringes of the Top 15, if not higher.

Saturday’s bout with Guida should be a good measuring stick of where Puelles is at in that development, as you’ve got to be sharp and composed and focused to get the better of the indefatigable veteran. Despite his advancing age and clear limitations, it’s still only quality fighters that have beaten Guida over the last couple years, so if Puelles is able to join that group, it’s a pretty clear indication of where he stands at the moment and a reason to get excited about the emerging talent from Peru.