Arman Tsarukyan Recalls Islam Makhachev Words Before UFC 331
Arman Tsarukyan is less than a week from a five-round co-main event at UFC 331, and he is still carrying the first night he ever spent in a UFC cage. That night was Islam Makhachev. The loss still bothers him. The words after it still sit with him.
Tsarukyan debuted on April 20, 2019, in Saint Petersburg on short notice at 22. Makhachev won a three-round decision in a fight that did not look like a mismatch. Tsarukyan even put the Dagestani on the mat. Then the scorecards went the other way, and the kid who never liked losing sat down and covered his eyes.
Makhachev did not pile on. Tsarukyan said his rival supported him when the cage opened.
“He supported me after the fight. He said, ‘You’re still young, everything’s ahead of you. So don’t be upset.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not that young.’”
He described what came next. “Fell down… Well, sat down and covered my eyes… I never liked losing… no matter how young I was.”
Seven years later the man who heard that speech is the No. 2 lightweight in the world. Makhachev is the welterweight champion. They were supposed to run it back for the 155-pound title at UFC 311 in Los Angeles in January 2025. Tsarukyan’s back gave out on weigh-in day. Renato Moicano took the booking and got finished. Tsarukyan has not had the belt fight since.
He returns Saturday, Sept. 19, to the same city. UFC 331 is at Crypto.com Arena. The co-main is five rounds against Mauricio Ruffy (14-2, 5-1 UFC), the No. 7 lightweight coming off knockouts of Rafael Fiziev and Michael Chandler. Joshua Van vs. Alexandre Pantoja 2 headlines for the flyweight title. Tsarukyan (23-3, 10-2 UFC) is the favorite and the one with the title-shot math.
Ruffy is not treating it like a stepping stone. He has said winning takes him straight to the title and that he is going there for a knockout. The Fighting Nerds striker is 30, longer, and finishing people. Tsarukyan last fought in the UFC in November, when he submitted Dan Hooker with an arm-triangle in Qatar. Between cages he has stayed busy in grappling. The layoff in the octagon is real. The wrestler in him is not rusty on paper.
Justin Gaethje holds the lightweight championship after the White House stoppage of Ilia Topuria. Gaethje has already said Tsarukyan is the man who deserves the next shot more than an immediate rematch. Tsarukyan has said he wants Gaethje. First he has to beat Ruffy. The promotion’s message around this booking is that a win here is the next step toward the belt. It is not a signed championship fight. It is the door.
The Makhachev chapter still shapes how Tsarukyan talks about the mountain. He has said he does not want a 170-pound chase yet. He wants five lightweight title defenses, one more than Makhachev’s four at 155, then he will decide whether to retire or move up. That is a plan that only exists if he gets the belt. Ruffy is the man standing in the arena where the last title shot died on the scale.
There is a hard all-time first UFC fight, and then there is taking Makhachev in Russia as a 22-year-old replacement. Tsarukyan did that, lost, and refused the comfort of being young. He was not that young in his own head. He is 29 now. The man who told him everything was ahead of him went on to clean out a division and then take another. Tsarukyan is still trying to finish the sentence.
Los Angeles is a full-circle booking whether the UFC meant it that way or not. The last time he was there for a five-round night, he could not walk to the cage. This time the opponent is a knockout artist, not the former teammate-turned-champion who consoled him in 2019. If Tsarukyan wins, the lightweight title picture tightens on Gaethje. If he loses, the debut story becomes a warning instead of a prologue.
He never liked losing. He said that when he was 22 with his hands over his eyes. Saturday he gets another chance to prove Makhachev right about what was ahead, without needing Makhachev in the other corner.