Arman Tsarukyan is going to wrestle twice in 22 days. Real American Freestyle officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that the UFC’s top lightweight contender will face Neiman Gracie at RAF Abu Dhabi on Nov. 14 at Etihad Arena. MMA Junkie reported that the promotion announced the matchup Wednesday as a catchweight crossover bout, with the card streaming live on FOX Nation.
That’s the second stop on his schedule. Tsarukyan (24-3 MMA, 11-2 UFC) first headlines RAF 14 against Dillon Danis on Oct. 23 at Fontainebleau in Las Vegas, with the inaugural RAF middleweight crossover championship on the line. So the guy with a lightweight title shot probably waiting for him is filling his calendar instead of sitting by the phone.
That title shot is why anyone is raising an eyebrow. Tsarukyan put Mauricio Ruffy away in the first round at UFC 331 in September, a finish MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck called a knockout of the year contender. Both outlets say the win likely made him the No. 1 contender at 155 pounds.
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Gracie, a longtime Bellator standout who also fought under the PFL banner, makes his second RAF appearance. The first one went badly. He lost to Shara Magomedov at RAF Moscow in September, and now his reward for trying to bounce back is a red-hot Tsarukyan in a wrestling ruleset. Rough draw.
Blades vs. Mir
Kennedy Blades puts her RAF women’s middleweight title on the line against Bella Mir. Blades hasn’t given up a single point during her run with the promotion, which is the kind of stat that makes a challenger’s corner very quiet in the warmup room.
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Mir, 23, is on a quick turnaround of her own. She’s booked against Hope Chase at RAF 14 first, then flies to Abu Dhabi for the title shot. She’s sticking with her plan to grapple while building an MMA career, and that career took a hit last month when Alex Apodaca beat her by unanimous decision at Dana White’s Contender Series 89. MMA Junkie described the result as one of the biggest betting upsets in MMA history.
The rest of the card keeps filling in. Kyle Dake defends his cruiserweight title against Alp Arslan Begenjov, and Colby Covington meets Khamzat Chimaev for the cruiserweight crossover title in the main event.
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My take: Tsarukyan is doing what most contenders with a title shot in hand would never do, and I’m all for it. Managers hate this kind of schedule because every extra match is a chance at a tweaked knee before the biggest UFC payday of his life. Fans should love it, because a fighter staying active beats a fighter tweeting about being robbed of a date. Mir taking two matches in a month right after the upset loss to Apodaca says something similar about her. Neither of them is hiding. First stop is Danis in Vegas on Oct. 23.
