Arman Tsarukyan says Ryan Garcia has not paid the $40,000 bet he lost on a Kick livestream, and Garcia is now claiming he was scammed.
The dispute traces back to earlier this month when Tsarukyan bet Garcia that he could not drop one of his teammates with a body shot during a session on Garcia's stream. Garcia reluctantly agreed, failed to drop the teammate after a few attempts, and tapped out before the two ended up sparring instead. The $40,000 was supposed to go to Tsarukyan.
Speaking on Adam Zubayraev's YouTube channel on Thursday, Tsarukyan said Garcia has not followed through on the payment despite multiple assurances.
"Brother, he hasn't paid up," Tsarukyan said. "Now, Khamzat and I are going to go talk to Ryan Garcia — $40,000. There was a lot there. 'We'll count it now and bring it over.' They counted it and never brought it. 'We'll send it to your account.' He said, 'I give you my word as a man, I'll send it to you.' Five days have passed, and he hasn't even texted, asking for the card number."
Garcia responded on social media in a series of since-deleted posts, first refusing to pay before pivoting to offering a fight instead. "Arman and his team, we can just set up a squabble between whoever on your team, no body shot things, just a fight. Not for $40K, for however much. I'm not paying you shit, let's just fight. If any of you can win, I'll give you $100K."
He also posted his reasoning for backing out, claiming he had been misled about the teammate's background. "I actually got scammed to be honest. Not one mention his friend was a professional fighter. That right there is deceptive."
Garcia caught significant backlash on social media for the response, pushing back on his critics as well. "First of all, I don't care about you MMA nut smackers talking about real 'fight.' There's a reason MMA fighters can't box, because it's HARD to just use your hands."
Tsarukyan subsequently proposed a new bet between the two on social media, keeping the feud going.
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