Arman Tsarukyan might’ve undone a lot of the good will with fans that he bought from his 64-second knockout of Beneil Dariush when he decided to mock Green for taking extra damage from Turner at his post-fight press conference, but if we can ignore that for a second and focus on what this performance meant, let’s try to do that.
It was significant, to say the least. For Tsarukyan to go in and utterly starch a motivated version of Dariush does wonders for his career, and allowed the world to see the potential many people – myself included – have seen in him for years now.
Tsarukyan has had some underwhelming performances at times, but now it seems like he’s rising to the level of the top competition in the lightweight division. That puts his 2018 loss to Islam Makhachev on short notice, and at just 22 years old, into an even better light for him.
The biggest problem now is the same one Tsarukyan faced prior to getting the Dariush fight: Who above him is going to be willing to take the fight? Dariush was fortunately a willing participant, but will the likes of Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler and Mateusz Gamrot (again), be? It’s tough to say.
The UFC could go the route or spring boarding him right into a title fight with Makhachev, but if you’re Makhachev, are you looking at that as an easier matchup than either Charles Oliveira or Justin Gaethje? Unlikely.
So that leaves Tsarukyan in a bit of a pickle. It will be interesting to see what the UFC does with him, because it would be a shame if he had to go the direction of taking a significantly lesser foe.
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This story originally appeared on MMA Junkie