Stream UFC 300 on ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/ufc/ppv ESPN MMA’s Brett Okamoto interviews Arman Tsarukyan about the …
Arman I feel like you probably been doing this your whole career but I I think I just saw it really for the first time cuz you’re documenting it really well and that is like your Camp is I think really cool you know like you do the half in Russia where it’s snowing and you’re mountains and then you go to ATT in Florida like what are the uh what do you think some of the benefits are just mentally physically like preparing you for a fight it seems like that you have it honed pretty well at this point yeah when I home I feel better you know I’m like everybody can come to see me like during the weekend you know and uh like time is like goes faster and I don’t know why I can push myself more there maybe I eat my my food you know homemade food or I don’t know and uh that’s why I trained there in the highest mountain in the Europe so it gives me a lot of benefits too and then I when I came here I was already on shape and I just started do a lot of sparring wrestling you know and um yeah so my Camp was super good so it’s like the Russia part is is kind of getting like your like um your body physically ready to go and then it’s like Florida you’re fine-tuning like skills and really kind of specific stuff is that like it is yeah it’s here is more like MMA style stuff you know we train like Jujitsu striking but like in Russia we we did a lot of like strength conditional work you know like running hiking and all that stuff and then when we when they came here I was yeah in shape so yeah like I split it and I didn’t I I didn’t do like I didn’t do a lot of strength condition work on this camp in Florida but I did already in Russia so y I feel like um a lot of times when guys get to this position in their career I hear them say like like this is my title fight already like I already feel like it’s a title fight you know and for you like I know you just said you just told me off camera like you got a bunch of people coming along with you it’s UFC 300 it’s against a former champion in Charles had a lot of title defenses like does this already feel like a title fight or not yet to be honest yeah I feel it’s like a title fight I I take this fight like a title fight you know because he’s former champion and uh when I beat him people going to say oh this guy deserve to fight for the title and he beat he can beat Islam MH when you accepted this fight did you know how popular olera was I mean it just seems like everybody I mean we’ll talk about what happened in Miami I guess you know like it’s just uh this guy’s got a lot of fans right have you felt that and did you know that when you signed no I didn’t know that and U when I uh I thought like he’s not that strong like I think now because I didn’t watch his old fights and I thought it’s going to be more easier to fight with him but now when I started to watch his all fights and like to know like all details techniques he’s so Technical and um yeah I Was preparing very well and for yeah I had a good training camp and uh he has a lot of fans so like everybody text me on commentaries that the champion has a name chars over and like send a lot of uh messages with the Brazilian flag but it’s it’s funny and all my coaches almost Brazilian here so yeah yeah um that it’s like that’s a very new experience for you I mean you’re you’re a nice respectful guy you haven’t really had like beef necessarily you know with your opponents like how has that been with just this flood of like you’re going to lose you’re going to lose how’s that been yeah it’s okay know I know it’s a part part of game and uh I I’m just calm and confident and uh I know what I got to do and I want to show everybody I’m in different level so this Saturday MH and what I meant by we’ll talk about Miami it was just the booze it was just like people coming up and like literally telling you to your face like were you surprised by that was that just a little like weird to you I was surprised because I didn’t think like a lot of like people going to like Boo me you know and uh maybe because um uh Pereira was there you know the his fans and ala fans is almost same guys you know that’s why and uh yeah but it was in LA like a lot of Armenian Russian people can come and I think it’s going to be like completely different when you said that uh you started watching some of his old fights and you’re like oh this guy is more technical than I thought so what fights were you referring to like which of his fights had you seen and then which ones did you go go watch and you’re like oh this guy’s maybe better than I thought no I mean like when you know someone you just watch his like short videos or like one fight two fights you know but like when you watch oh I’m going to fight with this guy you you see all his like skills you’re like just watching like one fight maybe like 20 times because you got to like to know what he’s doing there and like and after that you can like get something new new new and new and like at the end of that I understood like this guy is dangerous everywhere you know and like he knocks out people he can chop people and um yeah but I’m ready for everything do you see like a a are there patterns in what he does because I think of Charles as just so aggressive just like straightforward aggressive that um it kind of creates chaos a little bit but like when you’re watching him do you find patterns like do you do you think you understand what he does or is it going to be kind of chaotic fight in your mind oh definitely he knows what he does he’s good when he’s coming forward and uh he has a good techniques he does a lot of good com combination yeah he miss punches also but like uh he’s good he’s not just like borrow guy and like go forward just like to beat and knock out people so he he’s technical when he’s been knocked down in his fights and then he comes back and wins do you give like some weight to that like this is a guy who who does not go away like is that something you actually factor in or is that just like hey you know he got knocked down and he happened to get up like or do you look at that as like a skill of like this guy is not going to go any go away how do you kind of view his comebacks you know he’s like he can knocked out in the first round and like come to the second round and beat people so that’s why you got to finish him on the first round or if you like drop him you got to finish him because he can go on the second round and beat you so he he has a patient and uh he’s like he has a lot of experience and he believes him himself every rounds but like some people if they lost first round and second round he’s they are already like a broken you know and they they started losing but this guy is completely different he can lose first round second round but third round he he go and like everybody think he’s done on the second round but he goes and like like knocked out people do you think this the kind of fight that uh you can get a lot of fans whether it’s even just his fans or just like I mean it’s UFC 3 right are you looking that at this as an opportunity to like not just get a win and continue your career but this could like you know really blow up your stock you look at it that way yeah definitely this is I’m looking for a lot of fans for the from this fight to get a lot of fans and a lot of people going to know me because first of all UFC 3 hungry is the biggest event ever and uh second one it’s a contender number fight number one fight you know and who winner is going to fight for the title it’s the biggest opportunity in my life and I don’t want to miss it yep and last thing you know you say Winner’s going to fight for a title it seems like like are they kind of waiting to see what happens here and it like Islam in June I mean is that kind of what you’re expecting you win this fight and then you fight Islam in in June or how ises this going to play out do you think uh to be honest like I’m like now thinking about the Charles and after the Charles I can talk you know because I don’t want to jump uh straight to makv and uh yeah June is too early I think for us both for because we got to fight this weekend and uh we never know what happened if so let’s see I win and maybe I can get hurt or whatever so but like the best case scenario is beat Charles and fight uh for the uh belt in the summer do you think uh the walk out will feel any different I mean you’ve done some fights at the Apex you know this one’s a UFC 300 T-Mobile you’re going to walk out and Charles is you’re you’re ranked below him right so you’re going to be the cage waiting for him how do you think uh your nerves are going to be do you think it’s going to feel different than some of the other ones no every fight is the same feeling so like my first fight and like this is the 11th fight in UFC it’s like same feeling I thought oh I got like a lot of experience and this time I’m not going to nervous and like every fight I get nervous and like scary you know and like not scary to get hurt just to get lose you know I don’t want to lose so that’s why but uh the my last fight was the M event with a big crowd too in Austin and uh was good I I I expect the same feeling yeah it’s uh it’s probably my favorite fight on the card man can’t wait to see it and best of luck on Saturday thank you for so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] much