Demetrious Johnson spots his lesson in Arman Tsarukyan's UFC 331 KO
· Yahoo Sports
Demetrious
Johnson claims Arman
Tsarukyan put a lesson from their training session together to
good use in his recent bout.
Tsarukyan further bolstered his case for a title shot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 331, knocking out Mauricio Ruffy with an elbow at 4:56 of the opening round. The technique he used to deliver the knockout was among the positions he worked on alongside Johnson when they trained together.
Johnson broke down the finish and highlighted Tsarukyan’s decision to remain aggressive in close range rather than immediately looking for another takedown when he had Ruffy up against the Octagon wall.
“Now, instead of just wrestling here, like I said, you don’t have to wrestle here,” Johnson said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “Look, he’s already here. That’s one of the things I showed him. Usually people want to wrestle here, but I told him, ‘You don’t have to wrestle.’”
The UFC Hall of Famer also backed Tsarukyan for a title shot against lightweight champ Justin Gaethje.
“Those are things that he’s going to need when he takes on Justin Gaethje, because Justin can push the pace,” Johnson said. “He can do a lot of damage. He can wrestle, too. This is the fight that needs to happen. We don’t need to worry about Ilia Topuria. This man is owed a title shot.”
Tsarukyan further bolstered his case for a title shot in the Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC 331, knocking out Mauricio Ruffy with an elbow at 4:56 of the opening round. The technique he used to deliver the knockout was among the positions he worked on alongside Johnson when they trained together.
Arman Tsarukyan put Demetrious Johnson's clinch advice to use against Mauricio Ruffy
Johnson broke down the finish and highlighted Tsarukyan’s decision to remain aggressive in close range rather than immediately looking for another takedown when he had Ruffy up against the Octagon wall.
“Now, instead of just wrestling here, like I said, you don’t have to wrestle here,” Johnson said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “Look, he’s already here. That’s one of the things I showed him. Usually people want to wrestle here, but I told him, ‘You don’t have to wrestle.’”
The UFC Hall of Famer also backed Tsarukyan for a title shot against lightweight champ Justin Gaethje.
“Those are things that he’s going to need when he takes on Justin Gaethje, because Justin can push the pace,” Johnson said. “He can do a lot of damage. He can wrestle, too. This is the fight that needs to happen. We don’t need to worry about Ilia Topuria. This man is owed a title shot.”
🐐🧠 Demetrious Johnson teaching Arman some clinch work.
Mighty emphasized that Arman needs to move away from a wrestling-heavy approach to MMA:
“You’re holding him, but in MMA, it’s better to strip his hand off you, land a left hook to the body, a right straight to the head.”…— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) September 20, 2026
Visit afsport.lat for more information.