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Arman Tsarukyan won the biggest fight of his career at UFC 300 Saturday night, defeating former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira by split decision. But it’s what happened during Tsarukyan’s walkout that has fans jawing the morning after.
As he was doing his walkout to the octagon, Tsarukyan got physical with a fan. Several videos were posted on X that showed him, arm outstretched to shake a fan’s hand. Then Tsarukyan reacted very suddenly, turning toward the fan and appearing to punch them.
At the post-fight press conference, UFC president and CEO Dana White commented on the incident with his signature blend of humor and bravado.
“Yeah, you might not want to hang over things and grab people when they’re walking out,” White said. “These guys are all f***** hyped up and whatever, I’m sure we’re probably going to get sued but we’ll deal with that on Monday too.”
Tsarukyan also commented on what happened after the fight, via Bloody Elbow.
“He showed me that he wanted to f**** punch me, and I wanted to punch him back, that’s it. No one shows me ‘f*** you’ [like that] it doesn’t matter who you are, I’m going to punch you in the face.
“When you’re 200m away, I’m not going to punch you, but when you’re close to me it’s like automatically going to end in someone getting hurt.”
Tsarukyan hopes that defeating Oliveira will give him a shot at a rematch against Islam Makhachev, the fighter he lost to in his UFC debut in 2019. If he does get that rematch, Tsarukyan may want to consider a highly choreographed dance number for his walkout instead of leaving himself open to be taunted by fans.