Lightweight’s Future Champion?

Top-notch wrestler, Arman Tsarukyan, will throw down with veteran finisher, Beneil Dariush, this Saturday (Dec. 2, 2023) at UFC Austin inside Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

It’s not easy to break into the Lightweight title picture, where the smallest of slip ups will delay a would-be title shot by years. At 22 years of age, Tsarukyan was a genuine challenge on short-notice to Islam Makhachev, something very few of his more experienced and better prepared opponents can claim. An obvious talent, Tsarukyan should’ve been put on the fast track to the division’s elite.

Eight fights later, he’s in the Top 10, but marquee Lightweight match ups — such as Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, and Michael Chandler — continue to elude him. Why? He lost an incredibly close decision to Mateusz Gamrot, so now he gets Dariush, a fighter just as skilled as the names above but without much of the name value.

The Lightweight shark tank offers no easy path to the top. Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:

Striking

Tsarukyan’s a tremendous athlete, gifted in speed, power, and conditioning. He most often imposes those physical gifts via wrestling, but they’re of course helpful in stand up exchanges too.

Tsarukyan relies on short, classic combinations to set up his takedowns. This is not a bad strategy: the 1-2-3 and 1-1-2 are boxing standards for a reason. Both are great for closing distance too, as the left hook hides a double leg shot well, and the jab-jab-right/overhand can easily be used to crash forward onto a single leg takedown. When attacking with the 1-2-3, he’ll often take the right hand to the body before bringing the left upstairs — a perfect combo to threaten the level change, hit the opponent, then actually run into the double.

On the whole, Tsarukyan’s lead hand is pretty sharp. When Tsarukyan jabs, he tends to come in from a lower angle from a wide, powerful stance. Both of those factors help the strike land with power and come up beneath his opponent’s guard. Then, when his opponent is concerned about his jab coming straight through the guard, he’ll switch it up with a lead hook instead.

In Fedor Emelianenko’s Fighting Systems book, the Heavyweight GOAT talks about disguising the hook by throwing the arm out straight and only cutting back across at the last second. Tsarukyan seems to apply a bit of that philosophy, turning his hook over thumb-down. Against Christos Giagos, a nice left hook counter thrown in that style ended the fight in the very first round.

Generally, Tsarukyan counters pretty well. He likes to walk his opponents down when looking to line up his takedowns, but Tsarukyan will circle and move to catch his breathe after an explosive scramble. When a gamer like Matt Frevola tries to walk him down during that process, Tsarukyan has the comfort and range control to still poke at his opponent with jabs or slip and return fire.

Tsarukyan’s kicks are likely better than his boxing. I wasn’t able to uncover any specific info about his striking background or if he even has a base martial art on the feet, but he kicks like a Karate guy. The Armenian talent has a very slick left leg, which chambers up high and snaps towards its target with a surprising crispness. Tsarukyan is often punctuating combinations with that left high kick, but he’ll occasionally try to catch his opponent circling with the right high kick too. Finally, Tsarukyan can throw a pretty mean spin kick, usually to the body.

Tsarukyan’s active lead hand sets up his left kick well. Firing a jab then immediately flicking up a left high kick is a great combination that can punish an opponent who parries the jab. Another same-side setup he’ll use is to follow the left hook with a left round kick, often to the body. As the punch raises the guard, the ribs are exposed to a clean connection that lands very nearly at the same time as the left hook.

As is commonly the case with aggressive and athletic young wrestlers, Tsarukyan’s defense in the pocket isn’t great. There’s a reason he doesn’t trade for prolonged periods of time, as he occasionally gets clipped while admiring his work, rather than dipping/slipping/rolling out of range.

Wrestling

Tsarukyan is a Master of Sport in wrestling.

Again, let’s point out that athleticism. When Tsarukyan changes levels into a shot, he collides with his opponents at a different level of impact than most other fighters. Tsarukyan is happy to shoot for both double- and single-leg takedowns. Quite often, Tsarukyan is able to drive through sprawls or lift his opponents from suboptimal positions and finish the shots regardless of their defense.

Tsarukyan excels in the clinch as well. He’s fully capable of slamming his opponents from the body lock, but Tsarukyan has craft here as well. He’s scored some slick whizzer kick throws inside the Octagon and even kept up with Makhachev in these positions, so there’s more to his game than raw strength.

Tsarukyan’s mat work is a real strength also. Often, he plays the Khabib game of triangling the legs immediately after landing the takedown. This gives his opponent a few options, none of which are good. From the legs triangled position, the bottom fighter can choose to 1) stay there and hold on 2) turn away and give up the back or 3) try to stand, which is difficult, while taking punches.

At a certain point, everyone decides to turn away and try to stand eventually, assuming they don’t just give up from sheer exhaustion and frustration. As soon as his foe turns away, Tsarukyan is looking to advance position. He’ll grab onto the two-on-one wrist ride — AKA the Dagestani handcuffs — and punish opponents, but he’ll also throw hooks in. Sometimes, that combo creates the brutal half back mount, half mount with the wrist ride position, which can be a fight-finishing position.

Tsarukyan’s battering of Joel Alvarez remains the most vicious showing of his ground striking. Alvarez is a genuinely excellent Lightweight, but he simply didn’t have any answer for Tsarukyan’s strength and top game. From within the guard, Tsarukyan destroyed his opponent with elbows, taking huge advantage of small moments of space.

It’s wearing to desperately cling to an athletic foe who’s landing heavy blows. As Alvarez fatigued, Tsarukyan began advancing towards more dominant positions, like the wrist ride and side control. More and more elbows and punches landed, and the situation only grew more dire for “El Fenómeno” before he succumbed to strikes.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Tsarukyan has five submission wins on his record, and it’s all classic wrestler jiu-jitsu. He’s finished a trio of rear naked chokes, an anaconda, and a guillotine — a bunch of grabbing the neck and squeezing! The above section of about triangling the legs, taking the back, and then beating up one’s opponent should make it fairly self-explanatory how the RNC opens up from that sequence.

Inside the Octagon, Tsarukyan has shown a few submission attempts. Mostly, he tries to jump on the neck as his opponent scrambles. For example, as Matt Frevola tried to spin out of back control, Tsarukyan turned a wrestling-style claw ride into an arm triangle attempt. Tsarukyan also deserves some credit for using the butterfly guard to stand up from underneath Makhachev — not an easy feat!

Conclusion

Tsarukyan faces a real challenge here. He wins by taking down opponents and dominating, but Beneil Dariush is one of the best anti-wrestlers in the division. This could be the moment Tsarukyan proves his championship potential, or his limitations could really end up being highlighted by the style match up.

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Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.