{"id":899331,"date":"2026-09-20T21:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899331\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T21:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:26:15","slug":"tsarukyan-says-gaethje-avoiding-him-after-ruffy-ko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899331\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsarukyan Says Gaethje Avoiding Him After Ruffy KO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-msn-disclosure=\"commission\">This author receives a commission through recommended links in this content. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/affiliate-disclosure\/\" class=\"underline hover:text-bone transition-colors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">affiliate disclosure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/fighter\/arman-tsarukyan\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arman Tsarukyan<\/a> thinks Justin Gaethje wants no part of him in the cage.<\/p>\n<p>The top <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/division\/lightweight\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lightweight<\/a> contender stopped Mauricio Ruffy with a first-round elbow at <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/event\/ufc-331-2026-09-20\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 331<\/a> last weekend, cementing his status as the next challenger for Gaethje&#8217;s lightweight strap. But Tsarukyan told reporters after the knockout that the champion was rooting for the upset, per MMA Fighting.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Get tickets: <a href=\"http:\/\/boxingnews.com\/api\/tickets\/click?country=us&amp;target=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ticketmaster.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DUFC%2520331&amp;slug=ufc-331-2026-09-20&amp;placement=article-body-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" data-affiliate=\"ticketmaster\" data-placement=\"article-body-1\">Buy tickets to UFC 331 on Ticketmaster \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tsarukyan Accuses Champion Of Stalling Tactics<\/p>\n<p>Tsarukyan said Gaethje refuses to mention him by name and predicted the titleholder will use financial demands or callouts of other fighters to delay the matchup. He also suggested Gaethje might threaten retirement unless the UFC meets unrealistic terms.<\/p>\n<p>The UFC broadcast team backed Tsarukyan as the clear top contender following the finish. Joe Rogan told the Armenian in the post-fight interview that he had made his case with the performance.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf9f\ufe0f Get tickets: <a href=\"http:\/\/boxingnews.com\/api\/tickets\/click?country=us&amp;target=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ticketmaster.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DUFC%2520331&amp;slug=ufc-331-2026-09-20&amp;placement=article-body-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"sponsored nofollow noopener\" data-affiliate=\"ticketmaster\" data-placement=\"article-body-2\">Buy tickets to UFC 331 on Ticketmaster \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gaethje has ruled out fighting again in 2026 after injuring both hands during his title win over Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250. No timeline has been announced for his return to action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sources-heading\">Reported via:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ufc\/arman-tsarukyan-claims-justin-gaethje-is-avoiding-him-following-ko-win-over-mauricio-ruffy-hes-going-to-play-around-bullsht-game\/?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=arman-tsarukyan-claims-justin-gaethje-is-avoiding-him-following-ko-win-over-mauricio-ruffy-hes-going-to-play-around-bullsht-game\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BJPenn<\/a> \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/boxingnews.com\/fighter\/arman-tsarukyan\/\" class=\"internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash\/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arman Tsarukyan<\/a> claims Justin Gaethje is avoiding him following KO win over Mauricio Ruffy: \u201cHe\u2019s going to play around bullsh*t game\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This author receives a commission through recommended links in this content. See our affiliate disclosure. Arman Tsarukyan thinks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-899331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}