Tsarukyan's elbow KO at UFC 331 wins back Dana White after months of friction

Arman Tsarukyan silenced his critics — including his own boss — with a first-round elbow knockout of Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331 in Los Angeles, extending his win streak to six consecutive victories and cementing his position as the lightweight division’s top contender.

The finish earned Tsarukyan Performance of the Night honours and, perhaps more significantly, a public endorsement from UFC president Dana White, who had spent months voicing frustration with the Armenian fighter. White praised Tsarukyan at the post-fight press conference, calling the performance the ideal response to a difficult chapter.

“I’ve been vocal that I wasn’t crazy about some of the stuff that he’d done,” White said. “But you know what, when you f*ck up, then you come back and you do everything the right way. I mean, he couldn’t have had a better comeback after, you know, the things that he had done that I wasn’t thrilled about.”

The rift between Tsarukyan and White opened when “The Batman” withdrew from a lightweight title fight against champion Islam Makhachev the night before weigh-ins. The fallout deepened after separate incidents involving altercations with fans and fellow fighters drew further public criticism from the UFC CEO.

White admitted at the presser that he had feared the fight was slipping away from Tsarukyan before the decisive moment arrived. “At the end of that round, I was like, oh sh*t, man, he’s in for a rough night,” White said. “And then boom, the elbow. Incredible.”

With six straight wins and the No. 1 contender ranking now firmly in hand, Tsarukyan has repositioned himself as the most credible challenger in the 155-pound division. Whether a rescheduled meeting with Makhachev follows remains to be seen, but his standing inside the UFC — with both the rankings and its president — has rarely looked stronger.