Arman Tsarukyan has told of how he wanted to show the UFC he can behave by wearing handcuffs to an event this month.
Fans had theorized that the top lightweight contender was alluding to his being handcuffed by a lack of fights when he appeared at cageside during the UFC 326 broadcast in Las Vegas. However, it was actually a much different message to the promotional brass.
Tsarukyan has been struggling to get matched since pulling out of the UFC 311 main event on weigh-in day, fighting just once against Dan Hooker. However, he has been staying active with wrestling and submission grappling matches around the world in the meantime.
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Arman Tsarukyan wanted to prove himself with handcuffs stunt at UFC 326
Over the last few years, Arman Tsarukyan has become something of a bad boy in the eyes of UFC fans. He punched a fan during the ring walk for his UFC 300 fight with Charles Oliveira, and allegedly broke Dan Hooker’s nose during their final face-off before UFC Qatar.
However, he wanted to show UFC bosses Dana White and Hunter Campbell that he can behave which inspired him to don the cuffs while sitting next to Nina Drama at UFC 326. Asked by Ariel Helwani what he was trying to say, he replied: “That I’m not going to beat anybody here.”
When Helwani recounted the more popular theory that he was doing it to imply that he is somehow being tied down by the UFC, Tsarukyan replied: “No, no, people like that but my main thing was that if I go there with handcuffs and someone wants to talk s—, I cannot punch him, you know?
“My hands were locked… I met Dana and I met everybody there, it was good, very good. Nothing more than ‘hey how are you’.”
2026-03-31 04:00:00
