Arman Tsarukyan has his second career main event lined up.
MMA.Meta confirmed with Tsarukyan (19-3) today (Weds., March 15, 2023) that the rising Lightweight star is set to compete in his second career Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) main event when he faces Renato “Moicano” Carneiro (17-5-1) at UFC Vegas 72 on April 29, 2023.
“I will fight Renato Moicano in the main fight of the evening,” Tsarukyan said. “We will lead the UFC Fight Night event. Matchmaking? I don’t particularly like it because I’d like to fight someone who’s taller than me, not lower, but since this is the main fight of the night, you can’t miss that chance. There will be a lot of attention to our fight. Leading a tournament is always a good thing. The victory will be a big step forward.”
Tsarukyan’s first UFC main event appearance came last year (June 2022) against Mateusz Gamrot. The pair put on a thrilling and highly-skilled back-and-forth war, resulting in a unanimous decision for Gamrot. Tsarukyan has since rebounded with a unanimous decision of his own, retiring Damir Ismagulov in Dec. 2022.
The fight for Moicano will also be his second UFC main event. In June 2019, the Brazilian went up against the “Korean Zombie,” Chan Sung Jung, falling short via first-round technical knockout in 58 seconds.
The current line up for UFC Vegas 72 can be seen below.
- 155lbs.: Arman Tsarukyan vs. Renato Moicano
- 155lbs.: Natan Levy vs. Pete Rodriguez
- 145lbs.: Chelsea Chandler vs. Danyelle Wolf
- 135lbs.: Journey Newson vs. Brian Kelleher
- 265lbs.: Marcos Rogério de Lima vs. Waldo Cortes-Acosta
- 185lbs.: Michał Oleksiejczuk vs. Caio Borralho
- 185lbs: Cody Brundage vs. Rodolfo Vieira
- 170lbs.: Josh Quinlan vs. Ange Loosa
- 125lbs.: Cody Durden vs. Charles Johnson
- 115lbs.: Emily Ducote vs. Polyana Viana
- 145lbs.: Julian Erosa vs. Fernando Padilla
Arman is the next 155 champ. Im pumped
Odd fight to make, Arman just beat a guy ranked above Moicano. He’s a guy who could be fighting for the belt right now.
Arman will make mince meat out of his rear
Moicano has really good BJJ, but I don’t see him being able to stuff the takedowns.
Not an odd fight to make at all, he is only 6-2 in UFC. Fight before last #8 ranked Arman lost to #7 Gamrot even if it was close and FOTN. He is only 26. Lost his UFC debut to Makhachev. Lots of fighters “could” be fighting for the belt right now.
Makhachev is already planning to defend vs the #4 Dariush vs #1 Oliveira winner.
#6 Fiziev just lost to #3 Gaethje. #5 Chandler is doing TUF with Conor.
#2 Dustin is not taking a fight with a 6-2 UFC fighter who just lost to Gamrot.
UFC needs to put on Fight Nights and fighters in their prime like Tsarukyan need to fight and make money, hence it makes sense.
Great Fight Night headliner, IMO. I expect Tsarukyan to fight for the belt within the next two or three years for sure though.
Davi Ramos didn’t really get a long enough run with UFC, wonder if they elected not to re-sign him or if he walked.
He went 4-0 at LW but then lost to Makhachev and Tsarukyan and he was gone.
I see Arman steam rolling Renato if he fights smart. I hope he sticks to his grappling. If he does it will look worse then the RDA fight possibly and even shorter
I mean he didn’t really lose to Gamrot. The judges fucked him lol.
Should have been RDA.
Arman just beat that russian cat who is ranked ahead of Moicano. They should be pushing Arman closer to a title shot.
Also he took the Islam fight on short notice when he was 22 years old (not that that matters all too much) and he put up a great fight imo
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Most people had Tsarukyan winning the Gamrot fight
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He just fought a guy ranked above Moicano. Shouldn’t he get a step up and not down?
This is another example of Dana White privilege. Tsarukyan gets a bad decision go against him and has to fight down in the rankings for multiple fights, meanwhile Poirier get finished and gets to fight whoever he wants. I could see Dana giving him a title shot right now but definitely if he gets another win, meanwhile Tsarukyan will get nothing for beating Moicano and be in the exact same position he is now.
The sport would be far better off if Dana White privilege were removed.
I hate when prizefighting politics mess up title pictures and all that but in this instance, I’m not seeing it. Trust me, I hate the politics of bullshit title shots, made a thread ranting about it and was adding to it a couple days ago. I hear ya on that, trust me.
Dustin just beat Chandler and he did lose his title shot vs Charles but before that he just beat Conor 2x.
Dustin is like 21-6 in the UFC, has recent wins over Conor and he is wealthy and has fought a lot of the biggest names in two divisions.
He is waiting of the right fight for his career and he is wealthy…UFC can’t make Dustin take a fight vs Tsarukyan even if they wanted to.
Tsarukyan took this fight because headlining a Fight Night vs a top 15 fighter is never a bad thing when you are 6-2 in the UFC and want to become champ.
Nothing UFC could do to force a star like Dustin to take that fight…Moicano was probably the best fight available and Tsarukyan wanted to stay active.
Khabib, Makhachev, Oliveira, etc… had longer roads than Tsarukyan to the title shot. He certainly his not in a unique situation here even if he is not getting the Chandler or Conor treatment.
This fight literally does nothing for Tsarukyan. You think Poirier is gonna change his mind and want to fight him after he beats Moicano? Of course not. Unless he lands some kind of knockout of the year that people are forced to take notice of it’s nothing more than a stay busy fight.
I’m glad you brought up Islam since he’s a guy who probably could have won the title much earlier if given the opportunity. If he weren’t Khabib’s training partner he wouldn’t even be champion right now.
I don’t think headlining a Fight Night is ever a bad thing for a 26 year old who is only 6-2 in the UFC.
You could have said a lot of fights along the way to the title did nothing for Charles, Khabib, Islam etc… as well.
Just the way it goes in the UFC.
While I agree, ONLY Because most of the top 10 is clogged up. I really think they should’ve pushed for a bigger name. The kid is 26, he’s 7-1 in reality and it seems like he has a bright future ahead.
No easy fights for Moicano - he has fought so many savages
You are not kidding, he was 2-0 in the UFC and then fought Stephens, Ortega, Kattar, Swanson, Aldo and Korean Zombie back to back.
Even in his six LW fights…he has already been in there with RDA and Fiziev.
Just noticed, just to get in the UFC he had to beat Bonfim in Jungle Fight, the fighter who beat McKinney with a flying knee a couple months ago. Bonfim is 13-0 since then.