Arman Tsarukyan Says Second Elbow on Mauricio Ruffy Was Just in Case
Arman Tsarukyan knew Mauricio Ruffy was gone after the first elbow.
He threw the second one anyway.
“Until I got hit by the first strike, I was chilling,” Tsarukyan said. “That’s really how it was. But when I took the first shot, I was like, No, no, wait.’”
Ruffy had stunned him earlier in the round. Tsarukyan answered by hunting an opening on the break.
“I tried to land an elbow right away when he was breaking away and realized that’s the key right there,” he said.
With time disappearing, he changed the look.
“And when there were only 15 seconds left, I thought, I’ll fake a takedown, go for the wrestling, then switch back to striking immediately, because there’s no point, what would that takedown even give me.”
The level change set up the elbow. Ruffy’s legs went.
“So I landed the shot, looked at him, and saw that he was rocked.”
Asked about the follow-up, Tsarukyan did not dress it up.
“Second time was just for fun, bro,” he said. “I was really a little surprised because I didn’t immediately realize that he had got knocked out.”
He later tightened the sequence.
“As soon as I hit him, I was the first one to realize that he had fallen onto his shoulder. But what was I supposed to do — not finish him? What if he had woken up?”
That is the entire finish from the man who threw it. Fake the shot. Throw the elbow. Confirm the lights are out. Do not give a dangerous striker a second chance to stand up.
The win moved Tsarukyan to 24-3 and 11-2 in the UFC. It was his sixth straight victory and his first fight since submitting Dan Hooker in November 2025.
Ruffy fell to 14-3. The Brazilian had arrived off knockouts of Rafael Fiziev and Michael Chandler and kept the fight standing long enough to land that early right hand.
Takedown defense held for most of the round. It did not hold when Tsarukyan sold the wrestle and came over the top.
He said afterward that he knew a finish was required for a title shot. The elbow gave him one.
No official title booking has been announced. Tsarukyan’s explanation does not change the ranking math. It does show how he spent the last 15 seconds of a five-round co-main.