Arman Tsarukyan says he’s not to blame for the brawl that erupted after he punched Georgio Poullas just a split second after their wrestling match ended at RAF 6 this past Saturday night.
The ugly scene unfolded after Tsarukyan and Poullas were complaining about rough behavior during the match, which included slaps to the head and even a shove that forced the referee to warn both competitors. The bad blood finally spilled over when Tsarukyan secured his win and then tackled Poullas to the ground and threw
a punch with members from their respective teams pouring onto the mats along with security and RAF officials to try and keep the situation from escalating further.
On Monday, Tsarukyan broke his silence about the altercation and he claims he was only retaliating after Poullas took several shots at him during their match.
“I mean his game plan was just fight during the fight, make hype and he wanted to do that because the actual [wrestlers], like natural wrestlers never do that,” Tsarukyan told the Ariel Helwani Show. “Because it’s disrespectful. The referee can cut you out but this referee, he was just taking points from him. He punched two times, one time he did, they said ‘if you do one more time, we’ll just cut you from wrestling’ and the referee still kept waiting for him and he’s just knocking me out.”
While hand-fighting and even slaps to the head while trying to gain position isn’t that uncommon in wrestling, Tsarukyan believes Poullas took it once step further with his behavior during the match.
As much as he wanted to fire back earlier, Tsarukyan says he restrained himself to ensure he walked away with the victory first and then it came time to make Poullas pay.
“Maybe 20 times, he’s trying to poke eyes, break my fingers,” Tsarukyan said. “I always show to the referee and the referee shouldn’t do that.
“I thought he was going to wrestle but when he started punching, I said OK this guy wants to fight and cancel the fight. Do like dirty wrestling. I was waiting on wrestling [to be] done and that moment, I wanted to punch him right away. I won the wrestling and I heard the whistle and I said OK, now it’s time. Because I got the victory.”
The wrestling match may have happened in RAF but Tsarukyan’s main gig is competing in the UFC where he’s ranked as one of the top lightweights in the world. But a fight week injury cost him a title shot back in 2025 and then a headbutt delivered to Dan Hooker at the weigh-ins ahead of their showdown this past November allegedly played a role in Tsarukyan getting passed over for another shot at gold.
This latest incident didn’t exactly paint Tsarukyan in the best light but he doesn’t believe the UFC is going to punish him for finishing a fight that Poullas desperately tried to start during their wrestling match.
“This is not my fault,” Tsarukyan said. “Everybody is on my side now. I was waiting like six minutes. He was like punching me for six minutes. What do you want me to wait for me? Bro, if someone punches you — everybody is different, what are you going to do if somebody punches you 20 times? You’re not going to let him do that.
“It’s the opposite. They are going to be happy that a UFC fighter don’t let somebody to beat up a UFC fighter. UFC fighter goes to freestyle wrestling and beat the freestyle wrestler and to show what’s the level of UFC.”
Tsarukyan admits he hasn’t heard from the UFC since the brawl erupted this past Saturday night but he expects to know more when he attends UFC 326 on Saturday.
“We’ll see,” Tsarukyan said. “I’m going there on Friday and watch the fights on Saturday.”
As far as the future goes, Tsarukyan doesn’t have any interest in running it back with Poullas after everything that unfolded in their first encounter.
As much as RAF may want a rematch to build on the attention they received the first time around, Tsarukyan prefers to actually fight Poullas rather than trying to wrestle him again.
“No, if they want to do a rematch, we’ve just got to fight on the street,” Tsarukyan said. “Even better than a rematch. Because I don’t want to fight in freestyle wrestling. If he wants to fight, we can fight anywhere. He can come to Newport [Beach], we can fight in the sand on the beach. He would never do that because I need one second to knock him out. No interest [in a rematch] at all.
“He made his name. He has hype now and now he’s thinking he’s a superstar. He did his job. He’s not a good wrestler. He wanted to fight with me but it was stupid. I watched his fight just today. Luke Rockhold showed me his amateur fight. Someone knocked him out in the first round. He went to sleep. If he wants to fight, we can fight anywhere but not on the wrestling mats.”
As soon as security got the volatile situation under control, Tsarukyan left the arena and never had a chance to speak to RAF officials about the altercation but he doesn’t believe anyone is upset with him about what happened.
Overall, Tsarukyan had nothing but high praise for how RAF has treated him thus far and he doesn’t expect that to change because he decided Poullas deserved a little payback.
“I think they’re cool with me,” Tsarukyan said. “They treat me very well and they’re nice to me. I feel like RAF is very interested in me. I feel like it’s good to have this relationship with RAF.”
