Arman Tsarukyan continues to have issues during faceoffs.
On Saturday, Tsarukyan takes on Mauricio Ruffy in the co-main event of UFC 331. The five-round lightweight fight is ostensibly a title eliminator bout, but despite his pre-fight antics hurting his reputation with the UFC before, Tsarukyan simply couldn’t help himself, nearly getting into it a day early with Ruffy.
While Tsarukyan and Ruffy haven’t had much friction during fight week, that all changed at the ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday night
in Los Angeles. After stepping off the scale, Tsarukyan made a beeline for Ruffy, who stood posing with his fist out. Tsarukyan stepped inside Ruffy’s fist, leading Ruffy to use that fist to push him back, nearly starting an altercation between the two before security stepped in.
This is not the first time Tsarukyan has had issues at weigh-ins. “Batman” famously headbutted Dan Hooker at their final faceoff before their fight at UFC Qatar in November.
Saturday’s main event is a flyweight title rematch between Joshua Van and Alexander Pantoja, and in contrast to the co-main event, Van and Pantoja have been feuding all week; however, none of that boiled over for their final faceoff as the two kept their hands to themselves before delivering their final statements to the crowd.
“That’s opportunity. I’m grateful. But what happened in December, it’s not going to happen tomorrow,” Pantoja said. “I’ll see you in the octagon.”
“It ain’t no accident,” Van responded. “It happened the way it did, and it was meant to be. Tomorrow, we kill or be killed!”
Check out the full UFC 331 ceremonial weigh-ins above.
