Tsarukyan stops Ruffy with late elbow after wrestling game is shut down

Arman Tsarukyan stopped Mauricio Ruffy with a fight-ending elbow at 4:56 of the first round on September 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, reinforcing his standing as a serious lightweight title contender in the UFC. The finish came after Ruffy had largely neutralised Tsarukyan’s wrestling, forcing the Armenian fighter to find a different path to the stoppage.

Ruffy’s takedown defence held up well through much of the opening exchanges, but the Brazilian’s focus on stopping the grappling left him exposed to a clinch-based attack. Tsarukyan shifted tactics, using feints to draw Ruffy in before securing the clinch and landing a series of elbows — the last of which ended the contest.

Former UFC heavyweight title challenger Pedro Rizzo acknowledged Ruffy’s defensive effort while crediting Tsarukyan’s adaptability. “When you start worrying too much about defense, you become too defensive and stop attacking,” Rizzo said. “That combination of the clinch and the elbow caught Ruffy by surprise. He had already taken two elbows. He should have realized that when they broke from the clinch, Tsarukyan was throwing a punch or an elbow. But it’s important to say that it’s easy to talk from the couch — things happen very quickly there. So I prefer to say it was a credit to Tsarukyan and his team.”

Renato Moicano, who trains alongside Tsarukyan at American Top Team, offered a similar reading of the fight. “When Ruffy started letting his hands go and frustrating Arman’s takedowns, he got desperate,” Moicano said. “I started seeing Tsarukyan’s eye swelling up. But Arman, besides being versatile on the feet and having great cardio, is very aggressive. He kept his composure and started using feints until he got into the clinch and began attacking with elbows, and one of them ended the fight.”

The defeat is Ruffy’s second inside the UFC, while Tsarukyan’s clinical adjustment under pressure only strengthens his case for a lightweight title shot. Moicano, who was scheduled to compete on the same card before Brian Ortega withdrew with a cut above his eye, is now booked to face Tom Nolan later this year.