Arman Tsarukyan wasn’t interested in waiting until he got into the Octagon before throwing hands.
On Saturday night, the streaking lightweight standout scored the biggest win of his MMA career thus far, defeating former champion Charles Oliveira via split decision. However, it was his pre-fight antics that stole the spotlight.
During his walkout at UFC 300, ‘Ahalkalakets’ appeared to get into it with a fan in the crowd and ended up throwing some fists during the brief scuffle.
“Couple of dust-ups there DC with fans,” play-by-play man Jon Anik commented. “Looks like Arman Tsarukyan getting into it with somebody on the way in tonight.”
Daniel Cormier added: “Yeah it’s crazy to see him do that. You want to be so locked in. That has to be something that matters to Arman, what happened to him on the way to the Octagon.”
Arman Tsarukyan solidifies his spot at the top of the lightweight division
Clearly, Arman Tsarukyan didn’t let the incident affect his performance inside the Octagon. The Armenian offered up a brilliant showing, though it wasn’t without some adversity in the early going as Oliveira jumped a guillotine and appeared to have the choke locked in tight before ‘Ahalkalakets’ worked his way out of it.
With the win over ‘Do Bronx’ followed by Max Holloway’s insane buzzer-beating knockout against Justin Gaethje, Arman Tsarukyan looks to be the next man in line to challenge reigning lightweight world champion Islam Makhachev.
With the defeat, Charles Oliveira has now lost two of his last three and will go back to the drawing board at lightweight.