Donald Cerrone went on BetOnline’s The Fight Guys podcast and called Arman Tsarukyan a prick, with a profanity bolted on the front for emphasis. That’s the clip that will travel. The more useful line came right before it, when Cowboy looked at the rebooked RAF 15 matchup between Tsarukyan and Anthony Pettis and said, “that’s kind of dangerous.”
He’s right. He’s right for two separate reasons, and he spent most of his airtime on the less important one.
The setup first. Cerrone was scheduled to make his first combat sports appearance in five years on the Real American Freestyle mats later this month, against Pettis, the man who beat him twice in the UFC. Cerrone withdrew for what he described as a family emergency. RAF filled the slot with Tsarukyan on short notice, and Cerrone, according to BJPenn.com, reached out to Pettis personally to warn him about what he was walking into. When the guy who lost to you twice calls to wish you luck, you should probably listen.
The Wrestling Is the Real Threat
Strip away the swearing and Cerrone’s scouting report fits in four words: “He’s a good wrestler.” That’s the part Pettis should tape to his bathroom mirror.
Tsarukyan has been one of the regulars of RAF’s first year, and he’s beaten Urijah Faber and Dillon Danis on those mats. That matters more than any trash talk. Freestyle scoring rewards the guy who knows how to finish a shot, how to turn a scramble into exposure points, and how to manage the edge of the mat when he’s ahead. Tsarukyan has already competed under these rules and has the reps. Pettis prepared for Cerrone, a fellow MMA veteran making a one-off visit, and now he gets an active lightweight contender who has been treating this league like a second job. That is a very different camp to have prepared for, and there’s no fixing it in a couple of weeks.
My pick: Tsarukyan wins on the mats, and it isn’t especially close.
The Antics Are the Other Problem
Now the part Cerrone actually wanted to talk about. Tsarukyan didn’t just beat Faber and Danis. He got into post-match scuffles with both of them, per BJPenn.com. Cerrone singled out the Faber incident, describing it as Tsarukyan “throwing him off the stage,” and said he’d go after Tsarukyan and his entire crew if anyone tried that with him. He admitted, to his credit, that it wouldn’t go well for him.
Then came my favorite line of the interview: “There are just little things that he does that would just abhor me.” The grammar took a round off, but the point lands.
Two scuffles in two high-profile RAF wins stops being an accident and starts being a pattern. I’m not going to clutch pearls over a wrestler being a jerk after a match. Grappling has always had guys who rub people the wrong way, and some of them were great. My issue is practical. Tsarukyan is winning these matches clean. The wrestling is doing the talking, and then he hands his opponents and every retired fighter with a podcast mic a free storyline at the exact moment he should be letting the results speak.
Why This Spills Into the UFC Title Picture
BJPenn.com reports Tsarukyan is likely next for UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, assuming Gaethje decides to keep fighting. Gaethje happens to be a good friend of Cerrone’s.
So think about what just happened. Tsarukyan is probably one decision away from a title fight, and the champion’s buddy, a UFC Hall of Famer with plenty of name recognition, now has a ready-made bit about Tsarukyan being a menace off the whistle. If Tsarukyan vs. Gaethje gets booked, I fully expect Cowboy to show up in the promotional cycle, and Tsarukyan will have supplied him with all the material. Picking a fight with Cerrone by proxy is a strange way to prepare for a championship run.
None of this means Cerrone is a neutral observer. He pulled out, he’s watching his slot go to someone he can’t stand, and he’s friends with the guy Tsarukyan probably fights next. Weigh his tone accordingly. But on the substance, he nailed it. Pettis has a wrestling problem, and Tsarukyan has a behavior problem that keeps creating enemies he doesn’t need.
Cerrone told The Fight Guys he still expects to compete on the RAF mats soon. If RAF wants to sell its next card, it already knows who Cowboy would like to see across from him, and it isn’t Pettis.
