Arman Tsarukyan defeated Mauricio Ruffy by knockout at 4:56 of Round 1 in the UFC 331 co-main event. The finish came via elbows while Ruffy was pinned against the fence at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Tsarukyan sought to close distance against the longer Ruffy early, diving for a leg and pressing him to the fence. After a failed takedown attempt, Tsarukyan landed a devastating elbow from the top position, ending the fight.
"For my next fight, for the title fight, I needed that finish," Tsarukyan said after the victory.
This marked Tsarukyan's first fight in ten months, following a short-notice win over Dan Hooker in November at a UFC event in Qatar. He had predicted a third-round TKO with elbows and cuts to Ruffy's face — the finish arrived faster and more brutally.
Ruffy, a Brazilian prospect, entered the lightweight title eliminator having trained with prominent fighters including Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya. The early knockout denied him the star-making victory he sought.
