Arman Tsarukyan sparked a chaotic brawl at a freestyle wrestling event on Saturday night as the UFC lightweight contender stole the show for all the wrong reasons.
Tsarukyan attacked opponent and social media star Georgio Poullas following the conclusion of his co-main event bout at RAF 06, in which the Armenian was victorious, pushing him to the ground before unloading punches and catching Poullas clean on the chin.
What ensued was an all-out melee as members of both teams rushed in to defend their fighters, with the referee doing his best to pull Tsarukyan off of Poullas, who has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers online by routinely challenging people to take him down for $1,000.
Tsarukyan, known for his volatile personality and tendency to cause trouble outside of the cage, has since been branded a “little b****” by Poullas, who provided his reaction while being transported to hospital.
“Unfortunately, I was jumped,” Poullas said, wearing a neckbrace. “But as you guys saw my 62-year-old dad and both my brothers came to my rescue.
“That’s the way we were brought up. To fight for each other no matter what. We were outnumbered by like 12 Armenians and they came out running, fighting with me, fighting for me. So that’s f***ing love. That’s how we were raised.
“To Arman, you’re a little b**** and by the way if you guys watched the match, I’m the only one that got a takedown. He got a push out and a couple penalty points. I’m still the champ, baby.”
Tsarukyan’s response consisted of a short social media post, writing on X: “F*** around an find out.”
Arman Tsarukyan landed CLEAN on Georgio Poullas’ chin 😬 pic.twitter.com/7lSgtHMwnr
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) March 1, 2026
Former WCW boss Eric Bischoff, now the chief media officer of RAF, said he was “disappointed” with the turn Tsarukyan’s bout took, despite having a penchant for violence-related drama himself.
“First of all, I’ve already been accused on social media for actually creating that scene, because it looks so much like professional wrestling,” Bischoff said.
“But anybody that knows me and has ever worked with me knows that I would never have let it go that long. It was just too long. Joking aside, I was disappointed, because there’s so much other great stuff about Real American Freestyle.”
Tsarukyan, the UFC’s number one lightweight contender, regularly finds himself in hot water owing to his temper and was criticised for head-butting Dan Hooker in the face-off ahead of his last MMA outing in November.
