Reaching the next rung up the ladder secured Tsarukyan his first UFC main event and his highest ranked opponent to date – Mateusz Gamrot.
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Tsarukyan views himself as the next generation of lightweight talent and believes a dominant victory over Gamrot inside the UFC APEX this weekend will showcase that he is on a collision course with greatness.
“I want to show everybody that the young generation is coming and that a young guy like me can beat everybody in this division,” Tsarukyan told UFC.com. “They’ve got to watch my fight to understand that I’m the best in this division and I’m the youngest contender for this title. I want to get this title as soon as possible.”
When Tsarukyan made it into the UFC, he dreamed of being featured in a main event and now that it’s here, it’s been even better than he expected.
“It feels special. In my last fights, I didn’t have a lot of interviews like I do now. Now everyone is focused on me, and I like this,” Tsarukyan said. “People started talking about me after my debut and now I have a good win streak and I beat everybody after [my debut]. I deserve it to be in the main event.”
Tsarukyan couldn’t be more right. He’s been a dominant force in his last six fights, and he showed flashes of brilliance in his Fight of the Night loss to Makhachev. With two finishes already in the first half of 2022, he’s rising quickly, and the main event spotlight was certainly the next logical step for him.
Finding a willing opponent, however, wasn’t an easy task. Tsarukyan would have signed a contract to face any ranked lightweight on the roster, but there seemed to be a lack of options for him.
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“Because everybody is scared of me, of my techniques, of my skills. I can do everything during the fight and that’s why. They don’t know what they can do during the fight,” Tsarukyan said. “My conditioning is good, I’m strong, I’m sharp, and my skills are good. That’s why they know they are going to lose.”
That’s where Gamrot came into play. The American Top Team product was looking for a scrap in the Top 15 when he ran into the same difficulties that Tsarukyan had encountered. The lack of options eventually led to him being offered Tsarukyan and here we are.