Arman Tsarukyan would choose to fight without rounds if the decision was up to him.
The UFC offered Tsarukyan several rewards for him to return this month in a five round co-main event that is set for Los Angeles.
While the stakes hanging over his next matchup have resulted in it taking place over two extra rounds, Tsarukyan doesn’t expect to need them.
In fact, if he was the one calling the shots, he’d prefer to make professional MMA closer to a fight on the streets by removing the round-by-round format altogether.
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Arman Tsarukyan would remove rounds altogether if he could change one UFC rule
Arman Tsarukyan recently appeared on the UFC’s Deep Waters show to talk about his upcoming fight in Los Angeles.
After Tsarukyan spoke about originally being set to face Charles Oliveira in a title eliminator, the hosts opened the floor to fan questions.
The first one that came in asked the five-man panel what UFC rule they would change if they had the power to make one change.
Tsarukyan replied that if it was up to him, there would be no rounds, explaining that this would make contests feel closer to an actual fight.
“No rounds,” he said. “Just go there [for] 25 minutes. No rounds, no stops. Just like a real street fight.”
This pitch, which the rest of the panel agreed with, is similar to an argument that Joe Rogan has made in the past when he’s spoken about the current ruleset.
The UFC commentator made the case on an episode of his JRE MMA Show back in 2025 that he doesn’t agree with fighters being stood up at the end of a round if they were grappling on the floor.
“I think at the end of a round, say if you got a guy mounted at the end of the round, you start the next round mounted on him. Because why would you give him the advantage of getting up when he never got up? You have to earn a get up. You have to stand up by yourself. No standups ever,” Rogan said.
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Chris Weidman agreed with Arman Tsarukyan before offering another suggestion
UFC Hall of Famer Chris Weidman said that he’d make the same change as Arman Tsarukyan in order to remove rounds.
However, the former middleweight champion also argued that allowing knees to grounded opponents is another rule he’d like to…
2026-09-01 19:00:00
