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Tsarukyan has learned from many of his favorite fighters. | Getty/UFC
Arman Tsarukyan looked up to Khabib Nurmagomedov the most during his early MMA career.
Tsarukyan recently revealed that while he admires a lot of fighters, Nurmagomedov was his biggest inspiration when he started training. While Tsarukyan was born in Georgia, he was 3 years old when his family migrated to Russia, Nurmagomedov’s home country. “The Eagle” was already making headlines in the UFC when Tsarukyan began his MMA journey.
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Tsarukyan Learned from Watching Favorite Fighters
“I got a lot of favorite fighters. I watch their fights always. To see how they move, how they wrestle,” Tsarukyan said on “Out Cold” with Chuck Liddell. “But if we say who inspired me when I was young – it was Khabib. Because he is from Russia and I’m from Russia as well, I live there. When I started training MMA, he was a goal for us.”
Tsarukyan was just coming up the rankings when Nurmagomedov retired as the undefeated UFC lightweight champion in 2021. “Ahalkalakets” suffered a hard-fought decision loss against Nurmagomedov’s teammate, Islam Makhachev, in his UFC debut in 2019. Tsarukyan went 9-2 in the UFC to earn a chance to avenge his loss in a title fight against Makhachev this past January. However, Tsarukyan pulled out due to an injury and has since been stuck in limbo. Newly crowned champ Ilia Topuria says he would rather vacate his lightweight title than fight Tsarukyan.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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