Arman Tsarukyan’s amazing double elbow knockout win over Mauricio Ruffy wasn’t just a fluke — footage from his training camp leading up to the UFC 331 fight shows “Batman” hard at work drilling the move.
Tsarukyan was a big favorite coming into his fight against Ruffy, but most expected the wrestling powerhouse to take the flashy Brazilian striker down to avoid ending up on the wrong end of a flashy knockout. Instead, it was Tsarukyan who landed a picture perfect KO, slinging an elbow up that caught
Ruffy flush to the face (watch the finish here).
Ruffy was out after the first elbow, and then the second elbow came from the other side to finish things off.
Elbows were clearly a big part of Tsarukyan’s preparation based on video that was shared following the win. In it, Arman can be seen firing that same style of sneaky strike repeatedly. He also threw the same elbow in another clinch just a dozen seconds before doing it again and scoring the KO.
So it looks like Arman was prepared for Ruffy to fight the takedown hard against the cage, and the elbow was a planned reaction to Mauricio fighting for the underhook to neutralize his grappling. Once that happened, Ruffy’s face was exposed to those quick elbows.
The win over Ruffy is Tsarukyan’s sixth lightweight win in a row and almost guarantees him a title shot. The only question is whether he’ll have to sit on the sidelines (in the UFC, at least) if champion Justin Gaethje fights Ilia Topuria first. Given how sharp Tsarukyan is looking, it would be a shame to make him sit and wait half a year or more for those two to fight and for the winner to recover.
Get this man a title shot!
