Arman Tsarukyan wasted no time calling his shot after RAF 8, targeting Colby Covington for a high-profile wrestling showdown in May.
Tsarukyan is pushing to face Covington in RAF instead of Covington’s currently scheduled co-main event wrestling match with Chris Weidman at RAF 9 in May. The push comes on the heels of Tsarukyan’s 13-1 technical fall win over Urijah Faber in the RAF 8 main event.
“I’m looking for 10-0 [victory],” Tsarukyan said, outlining how he envisions a potential match with Covington. “I want to dominate him. I don’t want give any points like I gave to Urijah today because he’s a little bit old and it’s not good to win 10-0 also. But against Colby, I’m going to go hard and try to make it 10-0 in the first round and kick his ass. Everybody is going to forget about him in wrestling and everybody already forgot about him in UFC.”
Covington is currently slated to wrestle Weidman at RAF 9, but has indicated he is willing to set that matchup aside to face Tsarukyan and has spoken with UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell about making it happen.
“It’s a big fight, big wrestling right now. He beat everybody in RAF, I beat everybody so we are both the best wrestlers from the UFC. It’s going to be big [for] wrestling. I’m so excited. And he talks a lot so I want to shut his mouth,” Tsarukyan added.
The promotion has not previously allowed active UFC fighters to compete against each other in RAF, and Tsarukyan and Covington normally compete in different MMA weight classes.
