Arman Tsarukyan has no regrets about the events of his wrestling match and brawl with Georgio Poullas at RAF 6, and he feels many, including the UFC, are on his side.
Tsarukyan won the contest 5-3 at the event on February 28 at the Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona. But the bigger story at hand came in the aftermath, with Tsarukyan and Poullas needing to be separated after a physical altercation following the final whistle.
Though Tsarukyan started the post-fight kerfuffle with a shove, it was in response to dirty tactics implemented by Poullas during the bout.
Now, in an interview with Ariel Helwani, Tsarukyan opened up about the experience, feeling he was patient during the match as much as possible -- but that no one could stand for what Poullas did.
"This is not my fault," Tsarukyan said. "Everybody is on my side now. I was waiting like six minutes. He was like punching me for six minutes. What do you want me to wait for me? Bro, if someone punches you — everybody is different, what are you going to do if somebody punches you 20 times? You're not going to let him do that."
Video footage from the matchup saw Poullas landing punches and slaps on Tsarukyan, prompting cries of foul play from Tsarukyan's team but no true intervention from the match's referee.
Tsarukyan shoved Poullas to the mat and appeared to be ready to employ some MMA ground-and-pound before the corners and officials intervened.
"Maybe 20 times, he's trying to poke eyes, break my fingers," Tsarukyan said. "I thought he was going to wrestle, but when he started punching, I said, 'Okay, this guy wants to fight, and cancel the fight, do dirty wrestling. I was waiting on wrestling [to be] done, and [at] that moment, I wanted to punch him right away.
"I won the wrestling and I heard the whistle, and I said, 'Okay, now it’s time' because I got the victory.”
This controversy is not the first that Tsarukyan has been involved in over the past couple of years, and the result has seemed to be ire from the UFC directed at him.
Tsarukyan was suspended following an altercation with a fan during his walkout at UFC 300, which saw him defeat Charles Oliveira. Tsarukyan withdrew from a lightweight title fight with Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 just one day before the event. He then irked many in the MMA community by headbutting Dan Hooker in the ceremonial weigh-ins before their UFC Qatar headliner.
Some feel that Tsarukyan is digging a deeper hole for himself and his UFC career with this latest spotlight, and they feel he may have solidified never getting another title opportunity.
But Tsarukyan feels the UFC will be pleased with him not letting a wrestler, someone who is not a UFC fighter, get the better of him.
"It's the opposite. They are going to be happy that a UFC fighter don't let somebody to beat up a UFC fighter. UFC fighter goes to freestyle wrestling and beat the freestyle wrestler and to show what's the level of UFC."
RAF officials have expressed disappointment in the brawl, but the promotion has not disciplined either man as of press time.