Arman Tsarukyan Says a Loss to Mauricio Ruffy Ends Title Hopes
Arman Tsarukyan is treating next Saturday like a championship night. The No. 2 lightweight said a defeat to Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331 would wipe out his path to a title shot.
The comments came in a new camp video shared through Tsarukyan’s account. He sat on a couch in a gray shirt and spoke with the calm of a fighter who has already run the math.
“I’m taking Mauricio Ruffy as opponent like my title fight,” Tsarukyan said.
The five-round co-main event is booked for Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. UFC 331 is headlined by flyweight champion Joshua Van against Alexandre Pantoja and streams on Paramount+.
Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) is 29 and riding a five-fight win streak. He last fought in November 2025, submitting Dan Hooker with an arm-triangle choke in Qatar.
Ruffy (14-2 MMA, 5-1 UFC) is 30, ranked No. 7 at 155 pounds, and fights out of São Paulo. Thirteen of his 14 pro wins have come by knockout, including nine first-round finishes.
Tsarukyan did not dress that up. He called the Brazilian the most dangerous striker in the division.
“He’s, I feel like the best striker right now in our division, dangerous,” he said.
That is not empty praise. Ruffy stopped Rafael Fiziev in the second round at UFC 325, then knocked out Michael Chandler in round one at UFC Freedom 250 in June.
Tsarukyan said the power is why he cannot get careless. He talked about needing a smart night more than a wild one.
“I gotta be so smart during the fight because he has a good punch, so he knocked out a lot of people,” he said.
He also said he has never sold the Brazilian short. The striking, in particular, has stayed at the center of camp.
“I’ve been working so hard for that moment, and I never underestimated him, especially his striking,” Tsarukyan said.
The video cut between the interview and the work. Tsarukyan jogged down a palm-lined street with two training partners, then later grappled against the cage in UFC gloves.
Other clips showed him kicking pads in a garage and staring through the fence of a practice cage, sweat on his face. The footage matched the message: this is not a fight he is walking through.
He said every opponent already gets everything he has. The difference this time is what he believes a loss would cost.
“Every fight for me is important, give all myself in training camp,” Tsarukyan said. “If I’m gonna lose this fight, I’m never gonna see a title fight.”
That fear is rooted in a stalled title chase. Tsarukyan was pulled from a UFC 311 lightweight title fight with Islam Makhachev on weigh-in day in January 2025.
Los Angeles is the same market where that shot disappeared. He returns there as the co-main event in the promotion’s first visit to the city since 2018.
A win keeps him at the front of the line behind champion Justin Gaethje and No. 1-ranked Ilia Topuria. A loss would be his first UFC defeat since 2022 and, in his own telling, the end of the belt conversation.
He still projected the finish he wants. Tsarukyan said the plan is ready and that the moment belongs to him.
“Now it’s my time, so I have a good game plan and it’s gonna work very well,” he said.
He refused to call it simple. He predicted a hard night and then predicted he would still leave with his hand raised.
“I’m not saying that it’s gonna be easy fight, it’s gonna be hard fight, but I get the victory,” Tsarukyan said.
The styles make that claim a real test. Tsarukyan is a 5-foot-7 wrestler-boxer who mixes pressure with grappling control, while Ruffy is a 5-foot-11 knockout artist with a 57 percent significant-strike rate in the UFC.
It will be Ruffy’s first five-round fight. Tsarukyan has already gone championship distance inside the Octagon.
Ruffy has momentum and a finishing rate that does not need a second look. Tsarukyan has the ranking, the wrestling, and a public warning that he cannot afford a slip.
He is not asking anyone to treat this like a title fight. He already is.
UFC 331 takes place Saturday, Sept. 19, in Los Angeles. The Tsarukyan-Ruffy co-main event is scheduled for five rounds at lightweight.