Tsarukyan stopped Luffy with an elbow at 4:56 of the opening round on September 19 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The result solidified Tsarukyan’s position in the lightweight title picture, while Ruffy suffered his second loss.
Ultimate Fighting Championship. Pedro Rizzo
and Renato “Money” Moicano recently covered the fight.
Mauricio Ruffy frustrated the wrestling of Arman Tsarukyan before the clinch attack got the finish
Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Rizzo praised Ruffy’s ability to frustrate Tsarukyan’s wrestling before highlighting how the latter’s adaptation ultimately made the difference.
“When you start worrying too much about defense, you get too defensive and you stop attacking,” Rizzo said. “You have to give credit to their strategy. That clinch-elbow combination caught Luffy by surprise. He had already taken two (elbows). He should have realized that when they broke from the clinch, Tsarukyan would throw a punch or an elbow. But it’s important to say that it’s easy to talk from the couch. So I prefer things to happen very quickly in the first fight. To say that was a credit to Tsarukyan and his team.
Moicano, who trains at
America’s Top Team Alongside Tsarukyan offered a similar assessment of the fight.
“When Luffy started letting go of his arms and getting frustrated with Armani’s takedowns, he got desperate,” Moicano said. “I started to see Tsarukyan’s eyes puff up. But in addition to being versatile on the feet and having great cardio, Arman is also very aggressive. He kept his composure and started to use feints until he got into the clinch and started attacking with elbows and one of them ended the fight.”
Moicano was scheduled to fight on the same card as Tsarukyan vs. Luffy, but against him Brian Ortegawithdrew from the match after suffering a cut above his eye. Moicano is now booked head to head Tom Nolan
later this year.
