Moicano was a fun matchup for Tsarukyan since he’d recently been added to the lightweight rankings as the No. 13 contender, and there was a lot of hype behind him after his UFC 281 post-fight interview in the Octagon. In his absence, Tsarukyan went searching for a new opponent, preferably anyone with a number by their name; however, no one appeared to be available for the foreseeable future.
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Eventually, unranked Joaquim Silva accepted the call, and the bout was scheduled as the co-main event at UFC Fight Night: Vettori vs Cannonier. Tsarukyan received the news while still residing in Miami, Florida, where he finishes up the final two weeks of his training camp at American Top Team. Since his new fight was announced for less than two months away, Tsarukyan decided to stay in Florida instead of returning home.
“When [the UFC] called me and said Silva, I said, ‘Who is that? I don’t know him. I don’t want to fight with him because he’s unranked,’” Tsarukyan said. “I calmed down and watched his fights. He’s a tough opponent and it’s risky. It’s risky to fight with him, but every fight is risky.
“Now I understand that I have to fight everybody who takes a fight with me because we have almost 100 fighters in my division but just one guy, Silva, accepted this fight. Can you imagine? There are a lot of top fighters but everybody’s afraid of me.
“It disappoints me because I wanted to fight somebody in the Top 5 and I’m No. 8. When I was unranked, nobody took Top 15 fights with me. For Silva, it’s the best chance to fight someone No. 8. I’m the one guy that accepts all fights and the UFC got to understand that I’m the guy who is going to fight everybody and [beat] everybody.”
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His extra month and a half preparing in Florida provided Tsarukyan with a unique training camp unlike any he’s had thus far in his UFC career. American Top Team boasts an impressive set of elite fighters, including the recently retired Jorge Masvidal and one-half of UFC 291’s headliner, Dustin Poirier. Here, Tsarukyan gained valuable experience in his striking, an area of fighting he didn’t focus too heavily on when preparing for Moicano.
“For Moicano, I was preparing in Russia,” Tsarukyan said. “I came to [American Top Team] for two weeks and then when I knew I’m gonna fight June 17, I stayed at American Top Team. It’s a completely different training camp. I had different coaches there, a different training schedule, but I think this training camp was better than in Russia. I learned a lot of different techniques.
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“I worked a lot on my freestyle wrestling because I wanted to wrestle [Moicano] a lot because he’s a good striker and good grappler but his freestyle wrestling is not that good,” Tsarukyan said. “Silva, he’s an okay striker but he’s more jiu-jitsu, that’s why I can strike with him.”
Tsarukyan plans on backing up this confidence with a knockout finish on Saturday as he continues to build upon his already impressive resume in the UFC with the ultimate goal of getting a shot at the UFC lightweight title.
In 2019, Tsarukyan made his promotional debut against the current champion Islam Makhachev. Despite having his 12-fight win streak snapped, Tsarukyan earned Fight of the Night honors and gained valuable experience against the eventual 155-pound champion. Now that he’s back on the rise in the lightweight division, Tsarukyan believes it’s only a matter of time before he gets another opportunity to face Makhachev, only this time for the undisputed title.
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“I felt good, but I didn’t have enough time,” Tsarukyan said of his preparation for Islam Makhachev in his UFC debut. “It was short notice; I had three-and-a-half weeks to prepare, and my weight was high. I cut my weight during some sparring and that’s it. I know if I‘m gonna have a full training camp, I’m gonna beat him easy.”
