Arman Tsarukyan stepped onto the mat final Saturday with one thing to show.
The top-ranked light-weight contender has stayed busy exterior the UFC, and on April 18, he headlined the eighth Real American Freestyle occasion in Philadelphia.
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After already selecting up wins over Lance Palmer and Georgio Poullas inside the promotion, Tsarukyan confronted Urijah Faber at RAF08 and got here away with one other win.
But it wasn’t his efficiency that had individuals speaking. Instead, it was yet one more second of controversy added to his rising listing.
Arman Tsarukyan says he meant to ‘hurt’ Urijah Faber when he threw him off the RAF stage
Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC
Tsarukyan secured a tech fall over Faber, who as soon as held the WEC featherweight belt and challenged for UFC titles a number of occasions. During their bout at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, the Armenian fighter tossed his opponent clear off the mat.
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The 46-year-old was pushed by means of the commentary desk and onto the ground under, narrowly lacking commentator Chael Sonnen within the course of.
Nobody was harm within the alternate, and Faber even joked that it helped repair an previous damage. But Tsarukyan caught loads of criticism for what many noticed as an pointless danger.
Tsarukyan didn’t again away from that criticism, saying he had each intention of injuring Faber after all of his pre-fight speak.
“I forgot this was mat. I thought we were still in the cage,” Tsarukyan stated throughout a latest look on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“It was good nothing happened… I wanted to hurt him, to be honest. Because he was talking too much.”
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