Saturday’s UFC Fight Night was loaded with action but nobody made a statement as loudly as Arman Tsarukyan. The Armenian knocked Beneil Dariush out cold in the lightweight main event to score the biggest win of his career.
The fight did not last long, with the first big striking exchange of the fight also proving to be the last.
Tsarukyan threw a knee from the clinch that failed to land cleanly. Before his foot hit the canvas, however, Tsarukyan uncorked a right hand that landed flush to Dariush’s chin and sent him to the canvas.
Tsarukyan landed a few punches after following Dariush to the ground, leaving Dariush unconscious and Tsarukyan the winner at the 1:04 mark of Round 1.
After the fight, Tsarukyan, who has now scored four stoppages in his five most recent wins, said the fight went exactly as he expected.
“Sure, I was expecting a knockout,” Tsarukyan said. “I told you guys, I don’t want to win by decision or whatever. I just wanted to knock him out, go home and get that title fight.”
A title shot would likely mean a rematch with current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Makhachev scored a win over Tsarukyan in the latter’s UFC debut in April 2019. Tsarukyan believes he has matured since then and is destined to wear UFC gold around his waist.
“Islam is a different level fighter,” Tsarukyan said. “We fought four years ago and I was 22, now I’m 27. Next fight is going to be a different one. I’m going to knock him out, that’s it.”
Other notable UFC Fight Night results
- Jalin Turner also picked up a big win in the lightweight division in the night’s co-main event. Turner used his length well and exploited a low defensive guard from Bobby Green to score a big knockdown. On the floor, Turner dropped shot after shot as the referee looked on, refusing to stop the fight at an appropriate moment and instead waiting until Green went unconscious at the 2:49 mark of Round 1.
- Two-time former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo made his bantamweight debut on the card, facing a stiff test in the form of Rob Font. The striking exchanges between the two were tense and Font managed to mostly negate Figueiredo’s grappling, but the hooking shots of Figueiredo were the most impactful strikes throughout the fight, leading to him taking the win on scores of 30-27 on all three official scorecards.
- Sean Brady dominated the grappling game against Kelvin Gastelum, repeatedly putting Gastelum on the ground and dominating positionally. In the third round, Brady was finally able to put the fight away when he secured a kimura and forced the tap.
- Former women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate broke a two-fight losing skid in the featured prelim. Tate bullied Julia Avila from bell to bell, utilizing her wrestling to put Avila on the floor and landing hard punches before sinking in a fight-ending rear-naked choke in the third round.
