Arman Tsarukyan has gained a lot of followers recently with his social media antics. His 'side quests' have turned him into a legitimate content creator with a healthy following on social media.
However, he suspects his rival, Ilia Topuria, of manipulating his own follower count to achieve the same social media success.
Ilia Topuria's follower count has been under scrutiny from MMA fans for a while now. It became a major talking point as recently as during the announcement of the UFC Freedom 250. The Spaniard's follower count shot up by 400,000 following the announcement, which raised a lot of suspicions of botting on his part.
Now, Arman Tsarukyan has outright accused Ilia Topuria of botting to gain more social media followers. He said it after Nina Drama emphatically declared that she does not bot her streams. This led to the Armenian throwing the UFC lightweight champion under the bus for a joke.
Why [don't you bot?] Because you [are] broke? Because you're not Ilia Topuria?
Arman Tsarukyan told Nina DramaTopuria has caught flak from other fighters on suspicion of botting as well. Current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski also questioned the legitimacy of Topuria's followers on social media during the buildup to their fight. Of course, Volkanovski has managed to amass quite the following himself through his Cooking with Volk show.
Similarly, Arman Tsarukyan has successfully managed to leverage his lavish lifestyle and pursuits outside the UFC to become among the most popular lightweights in the world. However, despite the eyes he brings to the sport, a lightweight title shot has evaded the Armenian.
The Armenian getting snubbed for the interim title fight against Justin Gaethje was lambasted by fans. They criticized the UFC for favoring Paddy Pimblett and ignoring the rankings altogether for UFC 324. This snub also worsened the feud between Tsarukyan and Pimblett, who had gone back-and-forth over who would challenge Topuria next.
However, despite being snubbed from the UFC lightweight title picture, the 29-year-old has remained active by participating in grappling and wrestling matches. But by booking himself to fight twice in two weeks, against a former UFC interim champion no less, Tsarukyan has kicked up his activity to another level.
Arman Tsarukyan's endeavors outside the octagon are a huge reason behind his newfound success on social media. RAF has been one of the cornerstones of Tsarukyan's popular 'side quests.' Be it confronting Georgio Poullas with Nina Drama in tow or pushing Urijah Faber off the stage, Tsarukyan has managed to drum up quite some buzz for the promotion.
The Armenian even joked that he alone added $100 million to RAF's valuation. But in all seriousness, he has been instrumental in their meteoric rise, and the lightweight has no plans to stop competing. He already has a match set for RAF 09 against influencer Mugzy on May 30. Moreover, Arman Tsarukyan will compete at RAF 10 against Tony Ferguson in two weeks.
Since his UFC release after an 8-fight losing streak, Ferguson has rebounded with 2 wins. He won the interim Misfits middleweight title against influencer Salt Papi, then unified the titles by defeating Warren Spencer. This match marks the popular veteran's RAF debut, set for June 13
This means RAF 10 will take place the day before the UFC's White House card event. However, Arman Tsarukyan will need to put his concerns about Ilia Topuria and the lightweight belt on the back burner. After all, he may focus on retaining his undefeated record at RAF against a UFC legend like Tony Ferguson for the time being.
(60 Articles Published)