🔥 Don’t miss the explosive grappling showdown between Arman Tsarukyan and Makkasharip Zaynukov! This high-level submission wrestling battle took place on May 2, 2025, featuring two of the most dominant grapplers in MMA today. Watch as they clash in an intense, technical display of takedowns, sweeps, and submission attempts!
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00:00White trunks for Sorokian.
00:03Do expect this to be wrestling heavy, but we'll see how that goes.
00:06Made a bad prediction on that in our opening pit submission series bout of the night.
00:10Trying to strip to the 2-1-1 quickly as Sorokian.
00:13He's got a big Russian tie here.
00:18This is a fun grip to roll.
00:19Yeah, you can roll through on this really nicely.
00:24No, it doesn't do so, but does pick up the legs.
00:26And we've seen it time and time again, getting out of these pit corners in a grappling context is exceptionally hard.
00:35Sorokian trying to clear the legs here.
00:37Step over to a mount position or find his way to the back.
00:43Man, great head control.
00:45Founcing the push-ups.
00:49Not many of our token holders putting much faith in Zynikov there.
00:5417% of them believing the Russians are going to win.
01:05Sorokian working well on this body lock.
01:08Gets shucked off, though.
01:09And that's good defensive work from Zynikov.
01:12Zynikov.
01:18Sorokian looking to win that inside position.
01:21See, they keep pummeling to get the arms inside, get those collar ties.
01:25Sorokian's looking to lift up on that elbow, though, and either work for a throw-by or back to that 2-on-1.
01:31Digging a big underhook here.
01:32Yeah.
01:33Well, again, it's early.
01:38They're not too slippery yet.
01:41That upper body wrestling can pay dividends early on.
01:44It's a little bit harder as the fight progresses.
01:52Yeah, again, he looked to strip to it.
01:53Good snap down here.
02:02Head and arm control.
02:15Mercy grip.
02:16So unpleasant.
02:17Yes.
02:21Last time he had a budget clutch.
02:24Yeah, and you see over and over Sorokian's grabbing that right tricep with his left hand
02:29and trying to get that C grip and push it into this 2-on-1.
02:32He's got it again.
02:33See if he rolls through.
02:34Oh, tries to throw.
02:35You can throw it off to a single, which is what he's trying to do.
02:38One, two, one.
02:40One, two, one.
02:43One, two, three, two, three, four.
02:46Easy block of the shot there.
02:50Yeah, it's a good defense for Sorokian.
02:56About two minutes left in this opening period.
02:59This is under our typical pitch submission series rule set.
03:02Two five-minute periods with a third if they're drawn.
03:09But this is tiring because they're going for it.
03:12It's not like we saw with the heavyweight.
03:15This is going a little fast.
03:19Yeah, these are the guys who wrestle bears, though.
03:22So, you know...
03:23It's not hyperbole, either.
03:26Diving on the single, not able to pick it up.
03:47Battling these collar ties constantly.
03:49Good snap down.
03:49See how hard it is to get in on the hips here.
04:12That's why they're fighting upper body ties so much.
04:15Hips are so far back.
04:16And again, he's going to look to strip to this two-on-one, this kind of Russian tie.
04:20There he goes.
04:23But that's just going to keep getting progressively harder.
04:26The slipperier it gets.
04:27Yeah, that's the thing.
04:34And especially when we try to take somebody down.
04:36Once they start sweating, it's going to be very hard.
04:40That's when you have to start really looking in on the legs.
04:43And there's the first motion at a full shot from Sarukian.
04:46Well, that's the first five-minute period in the book.
05:03It's probably going to go the way of Sarukian for the one really good sequence he had earlier on.
05:10Take a look back at some of that hand fighting.
05:15It's so attritional right now.
05:24Good attempt at the Uchi Mata.
05:26Of course, Sarukian was able to back him into the corner one time earlier on in this bout.
05:44A few shot attempts from Zynikov.
05:49But on balance, the Armenian definitely getting the better of it.
05:56Now, if I was the ref, I would be looking to towel.
05:59Well, there you go.
06:00The home corner's doing it anyway.
06:01Looking to towel these guys off.
06:04Yeah, I was just looking.
06:05It almost looked like they threw water over them.
06:08I mean, that's how much they shine.
06:14Let's see who can get the take.
06:15They're both trying to strip grips here.
06:32Harassing the head constantly.
06:48Accidental eye poke as well.
06:50Both acknowledge it.
06:52Very genuinely accidental.
06:53Back under way, swiftly.
07:06Now, Sarukian looking like he's thinking about taking a few more risks here.
07:23Again, stripping the grips, trying to get those snap downs.
07:25But you've got to use them once you move your opponent.
07:27There he goes, looking for a sweep single on the outside.
07:29Got to be careful of those open palms on the face.
07:39And they're trying to frame away.
07:40They're trying to frame away.
08:10And they're going to step under there.
08:21And neither man able to really get any purchase on any of these takedowns.
08:30Somebody has got to take a chance here.
08:32It has to.
08:35And here's the thing, though.
08:36This is not one of those instances where you kind of get on the ref, you know, a stalling call, perhaps,
08:42because they are both actually constantly hand-fighting and fainting.
08:46Yeah, it's super tiring.
08:47It's a good chain pull.
08:49It's constant stress on the back, on the belly.
08:52It makes it harder to breathe.
08:54A lot of power.
08:55Yeah, this is where two wrestlers against each other can be a little bit of a stalemate.
09:01But a chance now for Zynikov.
09:03He's on this head and arm series.
09:04And a minute and 40.
09:34left in this one.
09:36This has really been the story of the whole fight so far.
09:39keeper.
09:56Feints from Zynikov.
10:00Again, the 2-on-1 attempt from Siruki in here.
10:03It was so slippery, and that time it was a throw-by from Zynikov who shoots and looks to re-shoot.
10:08And that's the kind of thing they're gonna have to do, they're gonna have to mix up the timing.
10:13Shot, re-shot, sprawl shot.
10:26Just a brutal, brutal wrestling practice for these two right now.
10:30It's gonna be super frustrating also for both of them, look at you.
10:33Yeah, good pick up on the single.
10:35It's the closest we've got to a finishable position for a little while now, and he hits the takedown.
10:41That was beautiful.
10:43Yeah, kind of when Kanabasami entry, you can't quite see it fully, but a nice little scissor work.
10:5420 seconds left.
10:56It's never really a good time when you grab a single and then stop and go static.
11:00Yeah, kind of gonna keep moving.
11:08So many shot feints.
11:10Closing 10 seconds here.
11:14Looks to go on the single one more time, hustles up to the body lock.
11:17Good work to go behind here.
11:19Oh, I wonder if that does it for Sarukyan to win this bout right at the death.
11:29Tricky, tricky one between these two.
11:33One more round, Doris.
11:35Only if it's a draw do we go to one more round.
11:37Oh.
11:39That's obvious.
11:41And you can see just deadlocked head to head, trying to pummel for the underhooks, getting the snap downs.
11:51Sarukyan was constantly looking for that two on one.
11:55Got a couple of good single leg entries.
11:57Here's that kind of Basami takedown slash sweep.
12:00That was nice.
12:01Yeah, just not able to capitalize.
12:03And this was a good shot from Sarukyan all the way to the end.
12:13Just wish he'd had a bit more time to try and use that.
12:15And there is a winner.
12:25Well, it looks like we're going to get a decision here.
12:29Ladies and gentlemen, your winner from the red corner, Arman Sarukyan.
12:55Well, Arman Sarukyan gets it done here in our pit submission series.
13:00The closer of the takedown attempts.
13:05A narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless.
13:07And he gets to go back to his contender status with the UFC.
13:13Been a pleasure having him here in the karate combat pit.
13:20Last look at some of the action from that bout.
13:23Arman, thank you so much for being here.
13:41How does it feel being inside our KC pit?
13:45I feel great. Thank you so much.
13:47You can't support me.
13:49We've got to get you up. We've got to get you up.
13:53Well, all right. Once again, big round of applause for your champ, guys. Well done.
14:10Honored to have you here in Dubai.
14:13We appreciate you being here with us as well at KC once again.
14:16How was the first time in the pit? How did it feel?
14:19It was great. So I haven't fought one year, you know, and that's why I came and wrestle today.
14:25My opponent was a very hard guy. Yeah, nobody know him a lot because he's fighting in Russia.
14:32But he's from a strong team like we know. And it was tough, you know.
14:37And he didn't want to wrestle too much. That's why I like more offense and then wrestle, you know.
14:44And he was trying to escape from me for like 10 minutes, you know.
14:51So I think judges did good work. Thank you so much.
14:55And I'm so excited to wrestle one more time here as soon as possible because this is great experience.
15:02Best crowd. Thank you so much, everybody.
15:06And the organization is so good. I like everything and can't wait for next one.
15:15And I need one more guy from Habib's team. Let's do that again.
15:22You have a huge fan base, not only in Dubai, but across the UAE in the Middle East.
15:27You just made a call out right now. Can we see you back here in the pit at some time?
15:33Yeah, for sure. Wrestling. Yeah, I want to wrestle as soon as possible because, you know, I do it for free in my gym.
15:40I can go here and make money and have fun, you know.
15:43Like my people, my coach can see where I did mistake and improve, get better on my wrestling skills, you know.
15:50And I knew like this fight is going to be like this little bit boring when like two guys, when they know freestyle wrestling,
15:58it's difficult to take down and wrestle. If you bring like a wrestler MMA fighter versus Jiu Jitsu guy,
16:05it's going to be more ground, ground, ground game, you know.
16:08And like, sorry, it was like not too, too good for fans, but I hope you enjoy.
16:14No apologies needed, champ. President Awesome is here with us as well.
16:19The greatness that we had inside the pit tonight, fantastic, right?
16:23No, it's been unbelievable. And I just want to come up here and say a big thank you to Armin.
16:27You know, he has some very, very big fights and just take some time out and grapple over here.
16:32He's always, always welcome. And I also want to give a big thank you to the UFC for always allowing their stars.
16:37Armin, Kyle was here, Aljamain Sterling, all these big names from the UFC coming out here and grapple.
16:44So thank you to them for allowing these amazing athletes to be here.
16:47Well done. Ladies and gentlemen, your champ, give them one more big round of applause to Armin.
16:53Well, Vass, it's a lovely thought, isn't it? The elite MMA guys using this as a training ground for the coaches
17:07to see how they can execute under a bit more pressure than just being in the gym.
17:11But that's it. You know, it's competition. It's just competition.
17:14It makes the MMA game better. It makes everything better because you get used to the pressure.
17:18Once you're completely relaxed, that's when you shine.
17:21Yeah, you know, I agree with...