Arman Tsarukyan has built a reputation for chaos outside the cage, but he says the discipline behind his actual fighting career traces back to a lesson his father drilled into him as a teenager.
“I heard a phrase from my father that really stayed with me. He had a lot of people working for him. Sometimes they would go out at night, drink, have fun. I was young too, I was 13 or 14, and I liked going places with them. They would take me with them. And one time, we ended up coming back really late — around four in the morning. They were very late for work, and my father basically tore everyone apart.”
“He said: ‘Look, you can drink and party until seven in the morning if you want. But at eight o’clock, you have to be at work. And until six in the evening, you have to work as if you never drank.'”
Arman Tsarukyan said that phrase has stuck with him ever since, describing a time he landed for a training camp at four or five in the morning with an 8 a.m. session on the schedule, and simply showed up without sleep.
“That’s how the phrase works for me: once you’ve found yourself in that situation, that’s it. There are no options. You get up and you just show up. And then you overcome yourself,” he said.
Arman Tsarukyan’s Career Has Had Plenty of Self-Inflicted Setbacks
That same discipline hasn’t always translated into a clean run in the UFC. Arman Tsarukyan withdrew from a January 2025 title fight against Islam Makhachev on the eve of the bout due to a back injury, a pullout that cost him a shot at the belt and drew criticism at the time. He’s also been involved in a real-life altercation during a Real American Freestyle wrestling event with Georgio Poullas, and has dealt with the fallout from a headbutt controversy, incidents that have added to a public image built as much on chaos and controversy as on his skill in the cage.
A Big Win This Weekend Could Finally Get Him There
Despite the setbacks, Arman Tsarukyan’s work ethic, the same one instilled by his father’s early morning lesson, has kept him in position to finally cash in. He heads into his UFC 331 co-main event against Mauricio Ruffy with a chance to put his past mistakes behind him and put himself directly in line for a title opportunity, provided he gets the job done inside the Octagon this weekend.
Also read: Arman Tsarukyan Admits He Didn’t Know Who Bruce Wayne Was Until Fans Started Calling Him Batman
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