Arman Tsarukyan won a belt Friday night in Las Vegas and spent the post-fight press conference shopping for a legend. After beating Dillon Danis at RAF 14 at the Fontainebleau to claim Real American Freestyle’s inaugural middleweight crossover championship, the UFC lightweight contender named Georges St-Pierre as the opponent he wants for his first defense.
“I don’t wanna just wrestle with no-names. I wanna collect all the big names, all the best fighters,” Tsarukyan said, per Bloody Elbow. He added that maybe RAF can bring in St-Pierre, and said he’d like to wrestle him.
MiddleEasy reported that Tsarukyan also changed his stance on a match with Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs, a man he’d previously criticized, according to EssentiallySports, for chasing Islam Makhachev instead of testing himself against accomplished freestyle wrestlers. Neither a Burroughs match nor a St-Pierre match is booked.
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The RAF title came a few months after Tsarukyan lost to Colby Covington for the promotion’s cruiserweight crossover belt. His RAF run has mostly been against MMA names, including Urijah Faber and Lance Palmer, which fits the stated plan of staying with “big names” from the cage world. EssentiallySports reported he is also three weeks out from facing Neiman Gracie in Abu Dhabi. Inside the Octagon, the 30-year-old Armenian is on a six-fight winning streak, the latest a co-main event win over Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331, with earlier wins over Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Dan Hooker and Mateusz Gamrot. His notable UFC loss came early, to Makhachev.
Then there’s St-Pierre. The Canadian hasn’t competed since choking out Michael Bisping in 2017 to become a two-division UFC champion. A planned boxing match with Oscar De La Hoya got blocked by the UFC. He agreed to a grappling match at a UFC Fight Pass Invitational at the end of 2023, then backed out. EssentiallySports reported a back problem earlier in 2026 limited his availability over the summer, though his recent comments suggest wrestling and grappling interest him more than a return to fighting.
Tsarukyan also has to get in line. Covington, unbeaten in RAF and holder of the cruiserweight crossover strap, called out St-Pierre after beating Luke Rockhold in his debut, citing their spots on the UFC welterweight takedown leaderboard. Covington says GSP is interested. St-Pierre hasn’t confirmed anything, and RAF has floated a Canadian event to make it happen without naming a date or venue. Separately, MMA Fighting reported RAF is targeting an event in Armenia for early 2027 with Tsarukyan’s help.
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My take: I like the ambition and I hate the price. St-Pierre has gone roughly nine years without competing, already pulled out of one grappling booking, and reportedly had a bad back this year. I don’t lay short odds on fighters coming off long layoffs, and I definitely don’t lay them on fighters coming off long layoffs actually showing up. If RAF wants a GSP match, Covington has the head start and the Canadian venue talk. Tsarukyan’s realistic path to a hometown headliner is that Armenia card in early 2027, and the guy across from him there will probably be named Gracie or Burroughs, not St-Pierre.
