Arman Tsarukyan Compares Pantoja vs Van to Himself vs Topuria
Arman Tsarukyan is not staying quiet about the flyweight title rematch that headlines his own fight week. The No. 2-ranked lightweight backed American Top Team teammate Alexandre Pantoja against champion Joshua Van and compared the matchup to the rivalry he has been chasing with Ilia Topuria.
“It’s like kind of me versus Tapuría, you know?” Tsarukyan said.
That line is the center of the clip. Tsarukyan sees a wrestler-grappler trying to drag a dangerous boxer out of his best range, which is how he has long described a potential fight with Topuria.
He did not pick Van to fold on the feet. Tsarukyan said the champion’s striking is the problem if Pantoja cannot get the fight down.
“If Pantoja gonna wrestle, take him down, the fight is gonna be over,” he said. “But if he’s gonna be struggle with taking down, it’s gonna be hard fight for him, because on the striking one is so good.”
He added that Van “hits hard for the flyweight,” then circled back to the ground as the reason he likes Pantoja’s chance.
“I believe Pantoja can take him down,” Tsarukyan said. “On the ground he’s incredible grappler, he chokes out people so easy during the trainings, even high level fighters that he spar. I watch his sparings.”
The support is personal as well as tactical. The video cuts between Tsarukyan speaking and gym footage of Pantoja wrestling, clinching, and training at American Top Team, where both men have been based. Pantoja has already spoken well of Tsarukyan in the same camp, calling him a teammate who has been chasing a title shot for a long time.
The fight they are talking about is UFC 331 on Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Van (17-2) defends the flyweight title against Pantoja (30-6) in a rematch of their December 2025 meeting at UFC 323.
That first fight did not last. Van won by TKO at 26 seconds of round one after Pantoja suffered an arm injury. Van later defended the belt with a fifth-round stoppage of Tatsuro Taira. Pantoja is getting the redo that the first night never became.
Tsarukyan’s comparison only works if you know the lightweight side of the card. He meets Mauricio Ruffy in the five-round co-main event that same night, a bout with title implications opposite Justin Gaethje’s lightweight championship.
Topuria is the name Tsarukyan keeps putting next to his own. The two have talked around a fight for years without the UFC booking it. Topuria won the vacant lightweight title after Tsarukyan fell out of a scheduled shot at Islam Makhachev, then lost the belt to Gaethje. Tsarukyan is still presenting himself as the wrestler who ends that style of fight if he can close the distance.
That is why he mapped Van-Pantoja onto himself and Topuria. In his version, Van is the sharp, hard-hitting boxer. Pantoja is the grappler who ends the night if the takedown lands.
He closed the clip the same way he opened it, as a teammate picking a side.
“So I’m excited for his fight, and I hope he’s gonna win,” Tsarukyan said.
A Pantoja win would restore the former champion after a title loss that lasted 26 seconds and never tested the wrestling Tsarukyan is selling. A Van win would confirm that the belt change in December was more than an injury result.
Tsarukyan still has to handle Ruffy before any of that becomes his problem. The Brazilian striker is 14-2 and coming off knockout wins, and Tsarukyan has already called himself the No. 1 contender if he gets through Los Angeles.
UFC 331 now has two title-adjacent stories on the same poster. Pantoja is trying to take the flyweight belt back on the ground. Tsarukyan is trying to keep his own path to Gaethje intact, while using his teammate’s rematch as a preview of the fight he still wants with Topuria.