The earliest card
2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 #22
The first Mauricio Ruffy card that exists, from the 30-card commemorative set Topps issued for UFC Freedom 250 (released July 31, 2026), the event where he knocked out Michael Chandler in the first round. It arrived more than two years after his UFC debut and after six Topps base checklists had passed him over, which is why collectors hunting a 2024 or 2025 Ruffy come up empty.
Nothing pits one Ruffy card against another; the uncertainty is the negative. The claim that Freedom 250 is his first card rests on SportsCardsPro's catalogue search plus six individually checked Topps checklists, not on a card database — TCDB, which would settle it in one page, could not be reached.
Sellers describing the Freedom 250 cards as 'rookies' because they are his first cards. They are first cards, not rookie cards: no RC logo and no RC flag on either source consulted.
Key Ruffy cards
4 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Ruffy's first cards did not arrive until 2026, and the reason is timing. He went 8-1 on the Brazilian circuit without a licensed issue of any kind, then knocked out Raimond Magomedaliev on Dana White's Contender Series on October 3, 2023 and signed — just as Panini's UFC licence was running out and months before Topps' first product under the new one. The contract produced no card, and neither did his UFC debut: the 200-card 2024 Topps Chrome UFC checklist had closed on March 20, 2024, seven weeks before he stopped Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 301 for a Performance of the Night bonus.
With Ruffy the absence is the whole middle of the story, and it is specific. His first-round spinning wheel-kick knockout of Bobby Green at UFC 313 on March 8, 2025 was one of the year's signature finishes and did not even produce a Topps Now card — the 2025 Topps Now UFC catalogue has no Ruffy in it. He is absent from 2025 Topps Chrome UFC, 2025 Topps Knockout UFC, 2025 Topps Finest UFC, Midnight, Royalty and Stadium Club, and after he beat Rafael Fiziev at UFC 325 the 200-card 2026 Topps Chrome UFC base set and the 100-card 2026 Topps Knockout UFC base set were both issued without him too.
What finally carded him was an event set. After the first-round wheel-kick-and-punches TKO of Michael Chandler at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, 2026, Topps issued a 30-card commemorative Freedom 250 checklist on July 31, 2026, and Ruffy is base #22 — his first cardboard of any kind, more than two years after his UFC debut. The parallel ladder runs Blue /150, Green /99, Red/White/Blue /76 for the event's theme, Purple /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and a FoilFractor 1/1. Sales rows also mention a copy numbered /250 that matches no published parallel.
He appears four times in that one product and nowhere else. Besides the base card there is #22-A, from the 22-card autograph checklist, his first and only certified signature, on the same colour ladder down to a FoilFractor 1/1; the UFC Dollar insert #UD-22, which puts all 30 base subjects on a currency design and is easily mistaken for the base card when the UD- prefix is dropped; and Presidential Seal #SO-22, from a 20-card insert inside a 30-card set, so ten subjects were left out of it and he was not. Nothing he has carries an RC logo and no catalogue flags one, so his first cards are first cards rather than rookie cards, whatever listings call them.
Autographs
1 certified autograph in the archive.
Card eras
Ruffy knocked out Raimond Magomedaliev in the third round on Dana White's Contender Series on October 3, 2023 and was signed. Panini's UFC run was ending and Topps' first UFC product was still months away, so the contract produced no card.
He stopped Jamie Mullarkey in the first round at UFC 301 on May 4, 2024 for a Performance of the Night bonus, then outpointed James Llontop at UFC 309 in November. The 200-card 2024 Topps Chrome UFC checklist had already closed on March 20, 2024 without him, and no 2024 Topps product added him.
His first-round spinning wheel-kick knockout of Bobby 'King' Green at UFC 313 on March 8, 2025 was one of the year's signature finishes, but SportsCardsPro's 2025 Topps Now UFC catalogue has no Ruffy card, and he is absent from the 2025 Topps Chrome (June 27), Knockout (October 24), Finest (November 7), Midnight, Royalty and Stadium Club checklists.
He beat Rafael Fiziev by second-round TKO at UFC 325 on February 1, 2026, yet the 200-card 2026 Topps Chrome UFC base set (May 8, 2026) and the 100-card 2026 Topps Knockout UFC base set (June 26, 2026) were both issued without him.
After the first-round spinning wheel-kick-and-punches TKO of Michael Chandler at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, 2026, Topps' 30-card commemorative Freedom 250 set (released July 31, 2026) finally put him on cardboard — base #22, the on-set autograph #22-A, Presidential Seal #SO-22 and UFC Dollar #UD-22, all with the same blue-through-FoilFractor parallel ladder.
Parallels of this card
Sets
Where Ruffy's key cards come from.
- 20262026 Topps UFC Freedom 2501 key card
- 20262026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 Autographs1 key card
- 20262026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 UFC Dollar1 key card
- 20262026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 Presidential Seal (Stamp of Approval)1 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 #22-A autograph, particularly the low-numbered Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10 and Red /5 parallels
- 022026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 #22 base in the Red/White/Blue /76 parallel, the run tied to the event's theme
- 032026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 UFC Dollar #UD-22, the currency-design insert
- 042026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 Presidential Seal (Stamp of Approval) #SO-22
Nothing from this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?
Sources & research High confidence×6Probable×3
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Mauricio Ruffy's earliest card: 2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 #22 — Mauricio Ruffy.
No Ruffy card carries a rookie designation. SportsCardsPro's item-details panel on the #22 page reads 'Is Rookie Card: No', and the Checklist Insider entries for him carry no RC flag even though that checklist flags rookies elsewhere in the same product (for example '22 Rafael Estevam RC' in 2026 Topps Chrome UFC). Because Topps never issued him a first-year card during 2024 or 2025, the earliest significant card is simply his first: 2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 base #22, from a set released July 31, 2026, more than two years after his UFC debut. Searching SportsCardsPro's whole catalogue for 'Ruffy' with variants excluded returns exactly four cards, and all four are Freedom 250 issues, which matches the four Freedom 250 checklist entries.
- 2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProMauricio Ruffy #22 — 2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsPro2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 set listing (variants excluded), accessed September 22, 2026
- WikipediaMaurício Ruffy, accessed September 22, 2026
Ruffy's first cards did not arrive until 2026, and the reason is timing. He went 8-1 on the Brazilian circuit without a licensed issue of any kind, then knocked out Raimond Magomedaliev on Dana White's Contender Series on October 3, 2023 and signed — just as Panini's UFC licence was running out and months before Topps' first product under the new one. The contract produced no card, and neither did his UFC debut: the 200-card 2024 Topps Chrome UFC checklist had closed on March 20, 2024, seven weeks before he stopped Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 301 for a Performance of the Night bonus.
With Ruffy the absence is the whole middle of the story, and it is specific. His first-round spinning wheel-kick knockout of Bobby Green at UFC 313 on March 8, 2025 was one of the year's signature finishes and did not even produce a Topps Now card — the 2025 Topps Now UFC catalogue has no Ruffy in it. He is absent from 2025 Topps Chrome UFC, 2025 Topps Knockout UFC, 2025 Topps Finest UFC, Midnight, Royalty and Stadium Club, and after he beat Rafael Fiziev at UFC 325 the 200-card 2026 Topps Chrome UFC base set and the 100-card 2026 Topps Knockout UFC base set were both issued without him too.
What finally carded him was an event set. After the first-round wheel-kick-and-punches TKO of Michael Chandler at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, 2026, Topps issued a 30-card commemorative Freedom 250 checklist on July 31, 2026, and Ruffy is base #22 — his first cardboard of any kind, more than two years after his UFC debut. The parallel ladder runs Blue /150, Green /99, Red/White/Blue /76 for the event's theme, Purple /75, Gold /50, Orange /25, Black /10, Red /5 and a FoilFractor 1/1. Sales rows also mention a copy numbered /250 that matches no published parallel.
He appears four times in that one product and nowhere else. Besides the base card there is #22-A, from the 22-card autograph checklist, his first and only certified signature, on the same colour ladder down to a FoilFractor 1/1; the UFC Dollar insert #UD-22, which puts all 30 base subjects on a currency design and is easily mistaken for the base card when the UD- prefix is dropped; and Presidential Seal #SO-22, from a 20-card insert inside a 30-card set, so ten subjects were left out of it and he was not. Nothing he has carries an RC logo and no catalogue flags one, so his first cards are first cards rather than rookie cards, whatever listings call them.
2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 #22 — Mauricio Ruffy.
2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 Autographs #22-A — Mauricio Ruffy.
2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 UFC Dollar #UD-22 — Mauricio Ruffy.
2026 Topps UFC Freedom 250 Presidential Seal (Stamp of Approval) #SO-22 — Mauricio Ruffy.