AUSTIN, Texas – Arman Tsarukyan couldn’t help but smile when talking about Bobby Green’s knockout loss at UFC on ESPN 52.
Green (31-15-1 MMA, 12-10-1 UFC) suffered a first-round knockout to Jalin Turner in this past Saturday’s co-headliner, in what was a very late stoppage. Referee Kerry Hatley let Green take some unnecessary follow-up shots that put him out cold.
Tsarukyan (21-3 MMA, 8-2 UFC) and Green were involved in a physical altercation during fight week, where Tsarukyan shoved Green by the throat. Green later confronted Tsarukyan’s team, and the 27-year-old was happy to see Green put out by Turner.
“He was talking sh*t about me,” Tsarukyan told reporters at the UFC on ESPN 52 post-fight news conference at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. “I just came and asked him, ‘Bro, don’t talk sh*t about me,’ because where I’m from you can’t just talk, you’ve got to answer for your words.
“So that’s why I just wanted to tell him don’t talk sh*t about me because if you’re going to talk sh*t, we’ve got to meet and talk. So he pushed me, I pushed him, and that’s it. Done. Hopefully I’m not going to see him again in my life. I was super, super happy when his head was bouncing on the canvas.”
In Saturday’s headliner, Tsarukyan emerged as a top contender when he needed just over a minute to knock out Beneil Dariush. He called for UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev next, and thinks he can knock him out in the first round, too.
Tsarukyan’s confidence comes from his work ethic and training at American Top Team.
“Maybe I was born confident,” Tsarukyan said. “To be honest, I train a lot. I train in the best gym with the best fighters in the world and I feel like I’m the best. That’s why I’m confident. I saw a lot of Armenian flags and I said, ‘Oh my God.’ That gives me different emotions. I was very calm, and when I saw my guys around me I said, ‘No way someone can beat me tonight, so I’m going to die or win.’”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 52.