Outside Source
Per wrestling organization Real American Freestyle on Thursday, Tsarukyan has been booked for his sixth match under its banner. The Russian by way of Armenia is already expecting to grapple influencer Keelon “Mugzy” Jimison at RAF 9 on May 30 in Texas. The headliner of RAF 7 and 8 may not be on the top marquee for this pairing, but he will be taking on Tony Ferguson at RAF 10 on June 13.
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Tsarukyan joined up with RAF at its fifth event in January, where he tech falled Lance Palmer without allowing “The Party” to even score a single point. Since then, he has been a mainstay for the burgeoning professional wrestling league—that is, paid wrestling matches, and not of the WWE and AEW variety. After topping Palmer, he rattled off a pair of points wins over wrestler-turned-influencer Georgio Poullas in February and March.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight contender has only competed once in the Octagon since 2024, where instead of a title eliminator or championship match, he headlined UFC Fight Night 265 in Qatar and throttled Dan Hooker with a performance bonus-winning arm-triangle choke. With the promotion seemingly unwilling to give him a title shot, Tsarukyan recently remarked to friend Khamzat Chimaev—he too will be joining the ranks of RAF, likely debuting at RAF 10 in the Chaifetz Arena of St. Louis, Missouri—that he enjoyed wrestling in this league because he can wrestle influencers and “old people” without “breaking a sweat.”
No news is bad news
His match against an aforementioned “old person” came in mid-April when he ragdolled 46-year-old Urijah Faber and even threw him off the mats in what some pundits called a “dirty move” and potentially grounds for disqualification. Prevailing by tech fall of 13 points to one, Tsarukyan had no problem dominating a man 17 years his senior that he outweighed by a significant margin. Despite the drama, RAF signed him to not one but two more matches in the near future.
Meanwhile, Ferguson, 42, parted ways with the UFC on an eight-fight losing streak, the longest in the history of the promotion, in 2024. “El Cucuy” briefly saddled up with the ill-fated Global Fight League, which still has yet to put on its first event. The two-time National Collegiate Wrestling Association All-American—this differs from the NCAA—put in his time at Central Michigan University, Grant Valley State University and Muskegon Community College. Outside of the wrestling mat, Ferguson has won boxing matches against influencers Nathaniel “Salt Papi” Bustamante and Warren Spencer under the Misfits Boxing banner.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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