Arman Tsarukyan is out of the doghouse and into the catbird seat.
Last year, Tsarukyan was supposed to challenge Islam Makhachev for the UFC lightweight title, before withdrawing from the bout the day before UFC 311. As a result, Tsarukyan drew the ire of the UFC brass. He was able to curry favor with the promotion by successfully weighing in as the backup fighter for UFC 317, but again misstepped when he headbutted Dan Hooker ahead of their fight at UFC Qatar in November.
Tsarukyan’s reputation as an unreliable and chaotic figure looked like it could severely hamper his MMA career, but over the past six months, Tsarukyan turned everything around with a full-court press on the PR side of things, regularly competing outside of the UFC and showing up on stream with various influencers. And all his hard work seems to have paid off, as now, Tsarukyan is one step away from fighting for the lightweight title.
“Arman is the backup for the White House fight,” UFC CEO Dana White revealed on Nina Drama’s Kick Stream on Thursday. “So, if anything happens to that fight, Arman’s in there.”
After losing his title shot, Tsarukyan seemed to decide that the best path forward was to compete as often as possible, and while his opportunities were limited in the UFC, plenty of non-MMA organizations were happy to have his talents. Since last summer, Tsarukyan has competed in six grappling events for various organizations and wrestled four times for Real American Freestyle. His active competition schedule has led to various viral moments and elevated Tsarukyan to one of the most popular fighters on the UFC roster. And White says that other fighters should take a lesson from Arman.
“Listen, the run that he’s been on after is impressive,” White said. “That’s what you should do. Listen, when you end up sideways, and you do some dumb shit, get out there and f*cking make people want to see you. And he has definitely done that. That’s a fact.”
But has Tsarukyan’s hard work backfired? Because while White says Tsarukyan will serve as the backup fighter for UFC White House, Tsarukyan is already booked to wrestle Tony Ferguson at RAF 10 the night before, in St. Louis. It’s unclear at this time if that match will be postponed or if Tsarukyan will attempt to fill in for both roles.
The UFC White House card is headlined by a lightweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and interim champion Justin Gaethje and takes place on June 14.
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