Arman Tsarukyan booked his lightweight title shot opportunity in style tonight at UFC 331 with a 1st round knockout victory against Mauricio Ruffy.

Round One

Low kick for Tsarukyan. Brief exchange of punches, but neither finding the mark as they look to calibrate their range.

Right hand connects for Ruffy now. Tsarukyan slowly backing him up and then drives in for a takedown. Ruffy manages to sprawl and works back to his feet quickly.

Tsarukyan remains clinched up against the cage though. He’s trying to work for another takedown, but Ruffy is defending nicely for now.

Tsarukyan steadily manages to shunt around to Ruffy’s back, but still unable to bring him down. Nice elbow strike from Tsarukyan and then continues to try to bring him down. Ruffy’s takedown defense appears to have levelled up dramatically though so he’s making it difficult for him.

Eventually Ruffy is able to land a strike to back up Tsarukyan. However, he comes straight back into the clinch against the cage and blasts Ruffy with a big left elbow that knocks him out, with a right elbow also landing on the way down to put a stamp on it at 4.56mins of the opening round!

Impressive stuff from Tsarukyan to finish his dangerous opponent on the feet, and that puts it beyond any doubt that he should be the next title challenger in the division.