Arman Tsarukyan had a front row seat to Khamzat Chimaev’s first career loss against Sean Strickland in May at UFC 328. With a role helping the now-former middleweight champion with his camp, Tsarukyan saw the struggles Chimaev endured.
Chimaev started his lone title defense in typical fashion, smothering and dominating Strickland with a heavy-pressure grappling assault. But his success in that department waned immediately; Chimaev dropped the subsequent round and battled competitively on the feet throughout the rest of the 25-minute affair. Ultimately, Strickland walked away as the winner via split decision, making him a UFC two-time titleholder.
Tsarukyan spoke on “The Ariel Helwani Show” Monday, explaining that the 185-pound weight cut took a serious toll on his teammate.
“After first round, he got tired,” Tsarukyan told Uncrowned. “Mostly because of weight cut. He could wrestle like 25 minutes nonstop [in camp], spar 25 minutes, but his body — after when he started cutting weight, that night he felt so bad, and in the morning he had no energy. We thought it was gonna be easy. But in the morning, four pounds left, his body didn’t start, so we just pushed him to cut and make weight. It was so hard. Then he said, even to me, ‘If I’m going to make this weight, I might lose.’ I said, ‘Bro, no, no. You’re gonna recover and you’re gonna be good.
“I wasn’t worried [that he would make weight]. At one point, when he said, ‘I cannot cut weight,’ I thought, ‘No way,’ and we started to push him, and he could make the weight. I said, ‘After weigh-ins, you’re gonna feel good. So, if you’re not gonna feel good, let me know.’ But he didn’t say anything.”
Plenty was made of Chimaev’s rough weight cut ahead of the fight. He appeared noticeably gaunt on the scales Friday before fight night. Directly after the fight ended, Chimaev went as far as to tell UFC CEO Dana White — while still in the Octagon — that he wants to move up in weight.
According to Tsarukyan, Chimaev struggled the most when he was a pound or less away from the 185-pound championship mark. Tsarukyan said he wasn’t there for the absolute worst of it, when Chimaev vomited throughout the process, but confirmed that was what happened amid the cut.
“His body, personally, I think can’t take the hits from the sauna. Probably. Most likely,” Tsarukyan said. “He can still make the weight. Just needs to adjust a couple things to become lighter on the last day. Instead of [cutting] 15 pounds, he’s gotta be 10 pounds.”
The loss was Chimaev’s first of an otherwise dominant 16-fight career, and it’s opened Chimaev up to plenty of criticism throughout the fight community, something that already ran rampant after his title win over Dricus du Plessis.
Tsarukyan sees it as nothing more than the ebbs and flows of MMA. When you’re up, you’re the best. When you’re down, you suck and aren’t worth a damn.
Tsarukyan believes the rebound for Chimaev will be more about some minor tweaks rather than an entire preparation overhaul.
“People are always gonna talk,” Tsarukyan said. “When he wins, everyone say, ‘Oh yeah, he did a good job.’ He lose, everyone is saying he’s doing the wrong things and that he overtrained. But Khamzat’s last training in the garage was like 15-20 minutes. On this level, you’re a professional — you gotta control yourself. If you feel tired, just skip the training.”
As for Tsarukyan, he remains the top contender in the UFC lightweight division after slicing through Dan Hooker with a second-round arm-triangle choke in November. He’s been collecting win after win on the Real American Freestyle (RAF) wrestling mats ever since, competing as recently as this past Saturday.
Tsarukyan awaits the outcome of June 14’s lightweight title bout between champion Ilia Topuria and interim champ Justin Gaethje at the UFC White House event. He’s set to be the replacement fighter for the card if needed, and in the meantime is staying active with RAF; Tsarukyan already has matches scheduled against both Tony Ferguson and Colby Covington over the next two months.
Tsarukyan also shut down rumors of a potential Charles Oliveira rematch. He has an idea of when he expects to return to MMA action, he said, but nothing is official.
“Today on my YouTube, I say I might fight in September, and everybody posts ‘Arman is officially fighting [Oliveira].’ … People started posting that I’m fighting with him. Nothing official. I didn’t say 100% I’m gonna fight him. I said I might fight him as well. It could happen.
“My next fight can be in September, October, December. You never know. Maybe next year. Who knows what the UFC wants to do and who I’ll be fighting next? It’s the winner of [Ilia] Topuria and [Justin] Gaethje, and if it’s Topuria, probably end of this year. If it’s Gaethje, it’s September, maybe October.”
Tsarukyan defeated Oliveira via split decision in their UFC 300 clash in April 2024. The win was the fourth among Tsarukyan’s current five-fight win streak.
Oliveira has since gone 3-1, defeating Max Holloway, Mateusz Gamrot and Michael Chandler, with his loss coming to the aforementioned Topuria for the then-vacant title.