Arman Tsarukyan details his viral rise from Russian hockey to UFC stardom, rejecting a title snub for a top-five contender and criticizing Dana White's reliance on drama over competition. He contrasts US fighter pay disputes with Russia's state pensions, citing John Jones' $15M demand versus his own $100k–$500k monthly lifestyle funded by Russian real estate investments. Tsarukyan emphasizes fighting for Armenia, challenging Ilia Topuria and promising to bring the belt home, while noting that 51% of his 15 million subscribers remain unsubscribed despite the show's massive growth. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Enjoy Life Over Money00:06:25
The world knows you as a fighter.
Like, you're an incredible fighter, entertaining fighter, feisty fighter, wrestling, all of it.
But content creation, I don't know if anybody's creating better content than you today.
You gotta take it and do it by yourself.
If you fail, stand up and go try it again.
You're the one fight nobody wants, right?
You're the guy that everybody wants to delay.
This sport is getting big because of drama, not because of fighting, like Conor Habib, Diaz.
What's the next big one for you?
Buddy, don't say that.
Are you serious?
They send me a contract, I sign and give it back.
Take the fight against Ilya 4-0.
You take it, don't pay me nothing.
It's okay, I'll fight for you, USA.
Fight for you.
I look forward to the day we celebrate as the first Armenian UFC champion.
Yeah, so when I get the belt, I flew out here and put the belt on this table and we talk again.
100%.
Armand Sarukian, how are you?
Great, thank you.
How are you?
Very.
Do we want to do this?
Hairen on English?
If I don't understand, I'm going to talk to you.
So it's my first time when someone knows Armenian and English.
So I'm going to be both the translator and the interview, which is going to be good.
Yeah, I always have my friend.
He's sitting and listening to the old podcast.
If I don't understand the question, I always ask him.
And now I say, bro, today you can leave because.
You don't need the translation.
Yeah, if I don't understand something, I'll leave.
I got to tell you, I messaged you, what was it, two months ago, three months ago.
I said, Brother, what are you doing with all this content?
Of course, the world knows you as a fighter.
Like you're an incredible fighter, entertaining fighter, feisty fighter, wrestling, all of it.
But content creation, I don't know if anybody's creating better content than you today.
How did that happen?
It's come natural.
I have a good lifestyle.
I can afford to fly a private jet, yachts, and I love that lifestyle.
And people, Love it too.
So the nice cars when I posted, like a food.
And so I posted maybe three years ago when I was eating in and out and it went viral.
I had maybe like 300 or 400,000 followers and it was like six, seven millions.
And I said, okay, maybe people like because I fought versus Damiil Ismail Gulov.
I beat him.
I got, I gained like 40,000 likes for the winning.
Right after the fight.
Yeah.
But when I posted in and out, I got 250,000 likes.
I said, Why did I beat this guy?
And I didn't go viral and I just posted the burgers and I went viral.
So, and I decided to do something more with my social media.
But like last half, last six months, we just crashed it and like nonstop working.
And, you know, I don't push myself.
It's like calm, natural, and it's easy for me.
So people think I have like a big, Team, like we just create something crazy every day, thinking about like a reels.
What are we gonna post?
This that it's like every every post, almost every reels, it's it's like almost my my my lifestyle, you know.
We don't we just create by all organic, just kind of like, yeah, why don't we do?
Yeah, we don't think even like Arsenal, he came to me and said, Bro, what are we gonna do?
I said, We're gonna train, do something, and they just we just create for from there because if we're gonna think and see.
It's not going to be natural.
So come, we wrestle, we box, we run, we eat, and then we film something.
You know, it's one of the ones I like, Rob.
Can you go back?
I think it was a skiing one or a snowboarding one.
Keep going the other way, Rob.
Keep going lower, lower.
You did a snowboarding clip.
Yeah, good.
It's got to come up.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
It was hilarious the way you posted it.
I don't know which one it is.
If it's still going, go down a little bit more, Rob.
Yeah, here.
Right there.
Click on that one.
Look at this.
This is the one that I commented.
You look at this.
Yeah, thank you.
The last part when I that's the best part all yanking.
This is the thing getting the eyeballs and the attention.
One and a half million likes.
Rob, click on the views.
Just click on the 1.5 million.
If you click on the 1.5 to the right, it'll tell you.
Look at this.
It doesn't tell you.
I don't know how many views it is.
It's in the tens of millions.
More than 20 something millions.
So, by the way, is it at a point for you right now where.
Because are you starting to make money doing content or not yet?
Are you getting millions of dollar sponsorship money or not yet?
Right now, yes.
You are now?
Yeah, because last year I signed all my contracts, but in one month they're going to be done and already like, instead of like 500,000, I'm going to make 3 million.
3 million a month in sponsorship?
No, no, like I'm approximately.
On one of the.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I got it.
For example, if I made like 500,000 a year from one brand, now I'm like making 3 million, 4 million.
Yeah.
So, yeah, because if you think about like the way Jake Paul did it or Logan did it or some of these guys did it, you're on track to being one of these guys that's going to get, you know, 20, 30, 40, 50 million, 100 million followers.
Like literally, you yourself with the way you're creating content.
Yeah.
But to gain followers is not easy.
You just got to, for example, give a car for the followers and like, okay, follow me.
I'm going to give you a car.
And you're gonna gain like five million followers, it's easy, but I don't want to do that because I'm just who wants to follow, not like that.
I'm gonna give them something if they like my content, they're gonna follow me.
So, and uh, before I was not thinking about, oh, I gotta make money from the social media.
Beating Everybody Young00:09:57
This that I was just having fun, you know, and uh, it's uh, not my biggest goal right now to make money, so my biggest goal is to enjoy my life.
I enjoy my life.
I fight, I wrestle, I travel around the world.
Yeah, the worst thing, I don't spend too much time with my family, mom.
I got kids.
But, you know, I'm 29 right now.
I'm telling them when I'm going to be 36, 37, I'm not going to train anymore and I'm going to be with you all day.
So you're going to get tired from me.
So enjoy your life for now until six years from now.
So, your story, I've heard it from a lot of different people, you know.
A story of you used to be a hockey player and then all of a sudden you got into fighting.
So maybe tell me a little bit about your upbringing.
Yeah, I was born in Georgia.
We moved to Russia for the good life, you know.
And then I went to karate.
I didn't like karate, but it was too far.
And then I started wrestling because it's close to my home.
I was starting wrestling and I could wrestle so good when I was a kid.
But like my coach always told me, you got to cut weight.
Because you got to be lighter, and I was hitting this sport because of cut weight.
But nowadays, if someone asks me as a kid, kids shouldn't cut weight because it's the worst thing ever for the kid.
And I couldn't eat like three, four days as like eight years kid.
Can you imagine like what stress?
At eight years old.
Yeah.
So you started training very early.
Yeah, I started six.
I started training six.
And from six to nine or 10, I was like beating everybody on the wrestling.
And then when I was.
I was playing for myself, like from six or seven years.
I wrestled like professional already, but like I used to play hockey in my backyard with my friends because all my classmates were hockey players.
I'm from Habarovsk, it's like a cold place in Russia, it's like north, north, like the coldest place in Russia.
Not an Armenian community?
No, no, no.
Not a lot of Armenian, only Russian people.
So they play all their hockey.
In the winter time, and my friends were their hockey players, so I was playing with them.
And then, when I was nine or ten, one of the coaches saw how I'm playing on the backyard hockey and they said, You got something special?
Like, do you want to come and play with professionals?
I said, how like they start when they were five, six.
You got to start earlier when you're in hockey.
And I started 10, and even I couldn't pick it up until 17.
So I was playing professional from 10 to 17 hockey.
You were playing professional hockey from 10 to 17?
Yeah, I wanted to go to the NHL.
So my dad even was saying, like, whatever you want, I send you to Canada, USA, just if you want to play in the NHL, so you got to go there.
I said, I like to be here.
But I was a kid, I didn't know what I should do.
So.
If I was smart, I should tell my dad to send me to the US or to Canada to play here.
Were you that good that you think you could have made it in the NHL?
I was good.
I was good.
And my goal was hockey.
And then when I was 17, I understood I cannot be a good hockey player.
And I said, okay, it's done.
I'm going to work with my dad.
And I was working three months with my dad and said, no, this is not my thing.
I like to be in the sport because it's easier for me.
You wake up, you know, your time, you train one or two times a day, you chill all day, you're like clean, you know, eat clean food.
But when you're in the construction business, you wake up at six, you don't have a schedule, you just drive everywhere, like talk to people, like help your dad, you know, they don't care about their body, they just work all day.
And like, it's not the best job.
And I said, No, I wanna go back to sport.
And I said, My dad, can I go to grappling school?
And he said, Yeah, dude.
And I went to grappling and I could do so good because I trained when I was from six to nine wrestling and I could pick it up so fast.
And grappling was just starting in Russia.
So from nine to 17, you didn't do any grappling or wrestling?
Nothing, nothing.
So only six to nine wrestle, then nine to 17 hockey, and then you come back to grappling in 18.
Yeah, so in one year, I was a Russian champion.
So yeah, it was like everybody was surprised how I made it.
And grappling for me was boring.
And I see like someone is fighting and I said, okay, I got.
I asked my dad, can I do one fight in MMA?
He said, You're stupid.
They're going to break your head.
Why do you need that?
I said, Just one fight.
I like when people go to the cage with music.
And I watched once when I was like 17.
And I said, I want to do this once in my life.
Who'd you watch?
What fight did you watch at 17?
It's a Dagestani guy.
He was walking to the cage with the good music.
I said, It makes me so excited.
And I said, I want to do this.
In my life, just because the walkout, yeah, walkout, yeah.
I don't know why the walkout and people like crowd watch you, and I don't know, like, I like it so much.
And I said, My dad, can I do once?
And he said, Just once.
And my mom was crying all day, Don't do that because someone's gonna break your head, so you're gonna be stupid early in life.
Now, have you been a fighter?
Like, were you a fighter or mainly wrestling?
Would you get into a lot of fist fights or no?
No, no, no, I didn't have experience.
I was like a grappler, and then I went to transition to MMA just for one fight.
So, and thank God I won my first one.
And then they offered me right away the second one with a guy who has 11 or 10 fights professional.
And I didn't have a coach who said, no, don't do that.
I had like a strong heart, you know, I don't care who I'm going to fight.
I said, if he wants to fight me, I'll go because I was young, no experience.
Nobody told me you shouldn't do that.
You got to box first.
I get experience, and then you can go to fight with these people.
I said, okay, I don't care.
I just go and wrestle him.
And I went there in 15 or 20 seconds.
He knocked me out.
My dad said, What are you doing?
Like, I told you, don't go there.
It's not your thing.
And I was so mad.
And I said, Okay, give me one year.
And can you send me to Thailand?
So I flew to Thailand.
I stayed there one year and I came back, beat him, this guy that he knocked me out.
What'd you do in Thailand for one year?
I was training.
I was coming back.
For competition to Russia and then back to Thailand.
How intense was the training in Thailand?
It was hard.
It was hard.
So hard.
And I didn't know how to train.
I was training all day.
I felt like a professional fighter.
They go to the gym in the morning and then come in the evening back.
So I was in the gym all day.
I didn't know, like, I got to go there, do one training, and then rest, and then evening.
I went there from 9 to 11.
It was jujitsu.
From 12 to 2, it was MMA.
And then from five to six, it was sparring, and I was doing like all that trainings.
Every day?
Every day, yeah.
Only Sunday day off.
Who told you about that place?
I was watching on YouTube.
I didn't know even where that place was.
I just know it was in the island, Phuket.
And I landed there.
I was asking everybody, where's Tiger Mai Tai?
And nobody knew that.
And then one of the taxi drivers drove me there.
It was like, 30 minutes from the airport.
Did you go by yourself or did you go with a girl?
No, alone, alone.
I was there alone.
By yourself, you're saying you're going to Thailand based on a video you saw on YouTube?
Yeah, nobody, nobody.
Yeah.
So you're training there and then you're now at the same time, are you coming back and forth to Russia or no?
Yeah, I was going back to Russia, beat somebody and then come back.
And then in one year, exactly the same day, I beat the guy who knocked me out.
I chucked him out.
And then my dad said, okay, you beat him, that's it.
But I was winning for one year of firefights.
I was a Russian champion, MMA, master of sport of MMA.
And like, I asked the one guy, I want to retire because my dad doesn't, I was 19.
And he said, You shouldn't do that.
You have like a good potential.
Like, you can be in UFC and don't do that.
I said, What is UFC?
Like, what are you talking about?
I'm just fighting.
Yeah.
And then I flew to Korea.
I beat the guy in Korea.
And then one of my managers said, Keep doing because you're seven and one.
You can be like a good MMA fighter and you can be in UFC.
And then I once started beating everybody and I was like 13 win streaked.
13 win streaked and they signed me in UFC for two weeks before.
So at what point did Dana know who you were?
Do you have an idea when the UFC found out who this kid is, Armand, that's beating everybody up?
Yeah, because they signed me before.
It was the second event in Russia.
You've seen Russia, and they were looking for someone from there.
So, and they got me there, and it was short notice.
Before two weeks, they told me before the fight, but still, you know, I said, I got to take this chance because you never know what's going to be tomorrow.
The UFC Signing Moment00:06:10
Maybe they're never going to call me again.
And is this an Islam fight?
Yeah, it's an Islam fight.
I went there, and my manager said, It's Islam.
I said, I don't care who is Islam and who is Habib.
I don't care.
I want to be in UFC.
I knew they give you a contract not for one fight, they give you a contract for four fights.
So if you go there, perform very well.
And I knew I could beat him.
I don't know why in my mind I was so confident.
Is that you or someone's telling you this?
No, you have just me.
The confidence is you.
Yeah, just me.
Where did the confidence come from?
I think from my blood.
I don't know.
Because where I was born, hard lifestyle, you know, my parents, they came from nothing, probably from that.
That you got to take risks and do what you got to do, you know.
Your dad seems like an interesting guy.
Is he very tough?
Is he a tough guy?
Yeah, he is.
He's tough, he can work 247 and never complain.
And when I was growing up, I was watching what he's doing, you know.
And like, he never buys for himself nothing, he just thinks about us for our future.
And for example, if you ask him, I want to buy this car or this, yeah, he's saying buy it.
But for him, he never gonna buy for him, like a car or what.
Simple guy, yeah.
I mean, when he was like 40 something, I said, Why you don't want to buy a car?
He said.
My time is left when I wanted to have cars when I was 25, 23, 24.
That moment I didn't have money, but now I don't need that.
But I want you to enjoy it because I didn't enjoy that time.
How many siblings?
I got the older brother and the younger sister.
So that's your older brother?
Yeah.
To your right.
What does he do?
Does he work with dad or.
He works with that.
He works with that.
So rumor has it your dad's very wealthy.
No, not very wealthy.
He's okay.
We have a good lifestyle.
We travel around the world.
We drive any cars we want, but like, we don't have like, I don't know, billions.
You're not billionaires?
No.
So broke, like a half a billion, like a few hundred million.
About, yeah.
Yeah.
That's so funny.
Now, did you always have a, like, I have four kids, but out of my two boys, one of them, Armand, he is such a simple life.
We can go anywhere.
He will wear flip flops, just relax, you know, he's happy.
My younger son, Dylan, 12, he has a very expensive taste.
He always wants the best of everything.
Were you always like that?
Did you always want the best of everything?
Yes, me, yes.
But my older brother, same as my dad.
So he never goes and spends so much money or something.
He doesn't care what he's wearing.
He never goes to the Rolex store and buy for him watches.
That watches he's wearing is mine.
I gift it to him.
And he's same as my dad.
But me, I'm opposite.
My sister is opposite to my father.
Sister, she likes like flashy things.
I like flashy things, but my dad and my brother, they don't care like what watch they have, what clothes they wear.
They just don't care.
But yeah, but they're not.
It's kind of for me, I'm not doing for anybody.
I do for myself.
I like watch, I like clothes I wear.
You enjoy it.
Not like show up, you know.
Yeah.
What did you learn from mom?
What did you learn from dad?
From dad, I learned.
You got to.
From dad.
Like, you gotta work to get something, not someone gonna gift you something.
Don't wait to anybody to gift you or to tell you you gotta do this.
You gotta take it and do it by yourself, like how you think it's good.
If you fail, stand up and go try it again.
So that's why I don't have too much patience.
If I wanna do this, I'll do it like my dad said, you know.
How about mom?
My mom, uh, My mom is athletic.
She likes working out.
She likes to take care of her body.
Like, I take from my dad, like, a hard work from my mom, athletic thing.
So, she doesn't eat like from when I was young, I never eat like sausages, never drink juices, juice, never drink in our house, it's like water or like a homemade juice, you know.
We don't, so my mom, she always like takes care of us so good and like she works out every day, and from her, I take.
Took that.
Really?
Was she an athlete before?
No, she just likes it.
So when we go to vacation, so my dad is sleeping, my sister is sleeping, but me, my mother, my mom, we go out running or like walking.
She likes to work out.
Very cool.
So the work ethic from dad, the athletic side from mom, that's amazing.
And then you like to find her things like your younger sister, the two of you guys together.
Yeah, yeah.
But she's lazy, so she doesn't like to work out.
She's just watching it right now.
Yeah, so what can I say?
She's lazy.
She doesn't like workout.
She likes the older brother, gonna give her everything, and she doesn't like even study.
So we cannot like.
Are you okay with that?
We tried to push.
It didn't work.
What can we do?
So now we're looking for what she likes to do.
So we're trying to open for her a salon, beauty salon, and she likes beauty things.
So.
It's great.
Yeah, so you cannot like push.
For example, if I'm going to have a boy, I want him to be a fighter, right?
Controlling Your Mindset00:15:07
I'm going to see if he doesn't like that.
I'm not going to push him.
He's never going to be like, he's never going to be a fighter.
Yeah, if he doesn't want to, you can't force him to do it.
I try to force my oldest son to play baseball, and he just hated it.
He's like, nah, I'm not interested.
You're interested.
I'm going to fight.
He's a fighter.
He does Muay Thai.
He couldn't stand doing jiu jitsu.
I put him in jiu jitsu.
And my dad, his grandpa's videotaping him because he's in a class down the street here.
And one of the girls in the class, there was one girl, and this girl, this one time, is teaming up with him.
And she's on top of him.
And he's just laying like this.
He says, Look, I want to learn how to fight so people don't come close to me.
I don't want people to come close to me.
So he likes Muay Thai more.
But going back to it, when you were talking about the fight with Islam that you had, you went the distance, if I'm not mistaken, right?
Yeah, it was the.
Three rounds, or three rounds, you guys went the distance.
Yeah.
What did you learn from that fight afterwards?
Because you only had two weeks, and this is the guy everybody's fearing.
You face him.
What clues did he leave with you?
From that fight, I learned you shouldn't be so confident.
You always gotta think twice, you know.
Don't underestimate your fighter.
Even like last week, I was.
Like last Saturday, I was wrestling with the old legend.
He's old, but still, like, I was doing warm up like I'm supposed to do.
I was preparing the same, I was cutting the same weight because everything can happen in the fight.
So after that fight, yeah, you never got to underestimate your fighter.
Yeah, and with the Faber, if you're talking about Faber, I'm assuming, right?
And in the fight with Faber, this one clip went viral.
Was the fight in Philadelphia?
I don't know why I think it was in Philadelphia.
Wasn't it Philadelphia, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And there's a clip of you, Rob.
I don't know if you have it.
Yeah, yeah.
Where, you know, is this it?
Yeah.
Make this a little bit bigger, Rob.
So, what happened to you?
Were you, was this intentional?
Was it accidental?
Accidental.
That's insane.
Not intentional at all.
No.
I mean, you gotta do a show, right?
If it was like a simple wrestling, nobody gonna talk about that.
You gotta do something unusual.
Did that hurt anything?
Like when you fell, adrenaline, nothing, no injuries?
No, no, no.
We know how to fell.
And him as well.
He's okay as well.
Yeah, he's good.
I'm gonna send him a gift.
You're gonna send him a gift, yeah.
What's the gift?
We'll see how much REF pay me.
Does this actually pay well?
Is it a good paying fight?
The wrestling, yeah.
Wrestling, I get paid good.
Like, what's good?
I mean, they don't want to tell me how much they pay me because the other fight, other wrestlers gonna want the same money.
I got it.
They're trying to, I got it.
But like, you can buy a good Patek Philippe, you can buy a good Patek Philippe that can rate not like yours.
You can, but you have a nice one.
Like this one, yeah, you can buy, but like this one, you gotta do like a six, seven.
Six, seven.
I'd like to get this one.
He knows watches.
So, from your experience with UFC, because UFC publicizes the biggest payday, right?
What's the most money you made with UFC?
With UFC?
More than a half a million.
More than a half a million in a fight.
Okay.
And the last person you fought, Dan Hooker.
Dan Hooker, which was about a year ago, right?
He's the one that you headbutted in the pre.
Yeah, before Wayne's.
Because I hate this guy, and then he tried to flinch me.
And then I said, Sometimes I cannot control myself.
If the guy is good, cool, I'm cool too.
But if someone wants to like flinch you and like make you scared, I'm not going to step back straight forward to him.
Yeah.
Okay, so this guy, you didn't like him from the beginning.
No, I didn't like him because we were talking trash about, he was talking bad about me, this, that, and like, and then.
Now I like him because I beat him.
Yeah, it's always like that.
Once you beat him, you're friends with him, right?
It's different when you fight him.
Yeah, so, but he has a bad mouth.
Arman, what do you think normal people don't know about Armenians that there's certain rules with Armenians you can't curse?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, there's certain things with Armenians that if you say, for whatever reason, we tend to get more angry than other communities.
Why do you think that is?
Because of.
The place where we grew up, and second one is genetic testosterone that we have.
It's from there coming.
You think that's what it is?
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, because if you go to Armenia, I mean, all the places Armenia, Georgia, Dagestan, Chechnya, it's like kind of the same culture everybody has.
If you go there in the village, the kids are fighting to each other, and they grow up like this.
And then when they go to the city, they have that mentality like, Like, you know, and that's why the best fighters, they're coming from there.
If they're going to sign a lot of Dagestani, Chechen, Georgian, Armenian fighters, they're going to take over all UFC.
No, but what I'm asking is I'm asking more about from the side of, you know, like in Americans, they'll say, hey, motherfucker, you know, they'll just kind of.
They just talk and like.
You just talk.
Yeah, and they have.
But if you do that to, even when Connor was doing it to Khabib, Khabib's like listening to everything he's saying.
Says, you don't talk about my father, my religion, nothing like that.
Armenians have a side of that as well, where you can't speak a certain way.
So, how do you, you're in the game of promoting, guys are going to talk trash.
How do you process that?
Do you mentally set it aside and say, I can't take this thing personally?
How do you deal with it?
No, I can deal with it so easy, but sometimes for the show, you got to do something.
You got to, if you think, like, for example, Habib, he had already a big name, and he shouldn't do anything.
If he's just listening to him, it's okay.
But for example, right now, I got to do something like crazy things that are going to bring a lot of eyes, and then when I, When I like a fight or something, they already know who I am, you know, and that's why sometimes people think I'm too crazy, but it's like, I don't know.
Sometimes I say, okay, I'm not gonna do anything, but like, I cannot control myself so much.
So I need someone to who is gonna stop me.
Does it help to when the opponent is somebody you really wanna destroy, or does it work against you?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, does it help if you hate the guy you're facing against, or it doesn't matter?
It doesn't matter.
When you're in the cage, you're calm.
You don't care.
But so in the cage, it's a completely different game.
It's just no talking, nothing.
It's just like a fight.
And if, for example, I hate Ben Hooker, I used to hate him.
And when I was in the cage, I was so calm.
Like, I was controlling myself because it's a fight.
You cannot do it.
If you're going to be not calm, you're going to lose.
You're going to.
Gas out, so that's why you gotta control yourself and like be calm.
So it's important.
Who did you fight that would talk to you?
Are there fighters that would talk to you in the middle of the fight that would try to get to you or no?
Yeah, sometimes, but I don't care what they say.
So in the cage, it's easy, you know, you can beat them out of the cage.
Yeah, it's hard to control yourself because you cannot beat him right away.
That's why he can talk a lot, but in the cage, he can talk whatever he wants.
You can just smash him.
Yeah, I remember when Khabib would fight, he was talking.
He would talk a lot and he would talk to Connor as well in the fight.
You know, there would be a certain level of conversation with them, but that's not your style.
You're not the one.
You're just focused on the fight versus your opponent.
Yeah, mostly, yeah.
But never know.
You never know.
You never know.
Yeah.
You could surprise somebody.
Yeah, for sure.
Have you ever grappled or wrestled or done anything with Khabib or no?
No.
His teammates, yes, a lot.
His teammates, yes, but not him directly?
Not yet.
I came a little bit later.
So.
He's already retired and coaching his cousins.
But in the future, for sure, I'm going to fight his cousins or somebody because he has a good team.
Do you guys ever communicate?
Have you guys ever communicated?
We're cool.
We're cool.
I'm cool with Habib Islam, with everybody.
With his whole camp?
Yeah, because we live in the same country and we have the same culture and we don't like to pass the lane, you know?
You got to respect.
And right now, you're training with Hamza.
Hamza, yeah.
How's the training with him?
Oh, so hard.
Hamza, the guy, I thought like I train a lot.
So I have the same problem like Hamza.
If nobody's gonna control me, what I'm doing, I'm gonna overtrain, overtrain always.
And when you overtrain, you cannot perform.
So that's why you need a good coach.
Hamza, same.
He works so hard and you gotta stop him.
So that's why he, like, three, four, five.
Fights ago, he couldn't make weight.
He pulled out, got injured because he always overtrained.
But now he has a good team and everybody controls him.
Not overtrained.
So it's important.
So it's interesting.
So overtraining works against you when it comes down to the fight.
Yeah, when you're young, you can overtrain because your body can take it.
But right now, when you're 30, 31, 32, you cannot do the same when you're 18.
So that's why now you got to take care of your body and train smart.
Especially we cut a lot of weight too.
So he cuts maybe like 15 kg.
It's like about 30 pounds.
Wow.
In what time frame?
Like one month.
In one month.
That's insane to go through that.
Yeah.
And what do you notice when you've trained with a lot of different people, I'm assuming, over the years?
Yeah.
What are some of the big names you've trained against?
Not fought, but trained with?
Yeah, but Hamzat, I think, the biggest name.
Biggest name?
Yeah, right now.
How does that help you training against somebody his size?
I mean, when I watch his training, what he's doing in the sparring, so I always try to take something from him, you know, because he has a good wrestling, good striking.
It's always good to have a teammate like him.
And his mindset, he has a different mindset.
Like, not everybody.
He never watches his opponent fights, he doesn't care what he's going to do.
For example, me, I sit and watch, like, okay, hooker.
He does the kick from the left, right.
He does this, that.
I'm going to do this.
He's going to kick me this.
Okay, let's train.
He's like, do a lot of straight kicks and do defense during the training.
But this guy, he doesn't know what even a Strickland does or his opponent.
He never watched them and he doesn't care what he's going to do.
He cares what he's going to do to him.
So he has his own game plan just on what he's going to do.
Wow.
So that's why he's different.
That's why he's a champion.
So he doesn't study his opponents at all?
At all.
Yeah.
So me, I'm opposite.
I'm like looking what he's doing, this, that, switch stand.
When he throws like one, two, he's going this way or that way.
He is different.
Yeah.
I'm taking it from him.
Nowadays, I don't think about my opponent so much.
I watch once and that's it.
So I let my coaches think about that.
Yeah, that's pretty wild to be thinking about because typically in every sport, just like study your opponent, we watch tape, we watch this, we watch that.
I think I watch more his opponent than him, for sure.
I watch what Strickland does that he's fighting next month.
Why did he bring you in?
Because if he's fighting Strickland, why train with you?
Of course, you're one of the best in the world and your weight class, you're feared by everybody.
But why bring you in?
We are good friends, and he has a fight in the US.
He asked me where I should train.
So he came here one year ago and he liked it to train with me, with my coaches, the place where I train.
And he feels free here because he's a superstar in Russia, in UAE.
Here in Newport, nobody likes to bother him.
So he can focus on his thing and he likes the energy.
He likes to be.
How fun is he?
How fun is he without.
You know, with the camera off, with nobody being there.
Is he as fun as he seems like he is, or is he very serious?
So, you can see him once.
He can be the funniest guy ever, but you can see him in one hour.
He's gonna be the scariest guy ever, so he can change his mind about his mood so fast.
And I ask my guys, like my friends, they say they tell me you're the same, so you can be funny in the morning, and then in the evening, you come and like, Why are you doing this?
Like, and like, you're so like, have a good mood, so maybe because we're fighters, or I don't know.
Like, he's the same, one day you cannot even talk to him.
Because he says, Hi, how are you?
Good, that's it.
So he doesn't talk.
One day he never stopped.
He can talk like three or four hours.
It's funny that that's a very common pattern with a lot of creative minds who wouldn't stop and were not happy with their level of contentment was so low.
They wanted to win at the highest level and they couldn't stop.
Athletes, typically the best ones, have a bit of that mindset.
Brady, if you're around Brady, there's moments that he's got a fun side, but he can all of a Suddenly be a psycho.
It's like, hey, why are you guys sitting around so happy?
Main Event Title Fight00:15:10
We're losing.
Let's get our act together.
It's a very, very common pattern with the highest level winners.
So, for you, what is next for you?
Because there's a lot of people that want to see you.
You're not on the White House card.
I thought you were going to be on the White House card.
I thought the big fight would have been a lot of names with you being included in it.
What's the next big one for you?
I'm a backup for the White House.
So, man, you went in my weight.
You are.
Yeah.
So, if something happened, Uh, on the main event, if someone pulls out, or is this public information?
It's not public, but you should tell me if someone like oh, buddy, don't say that.
Are you serious?
Yeah, if someone pulls out, but they gotta get injured, which is awesome.
Like, well, I mean, there's a big one if a guy pulls out, like you, yeah.
So that's why I'm flying out tomorrow to back to Cali and the trainings.
Wait, if if accidentally Gagey or Taporia pulls out, you're in, yeah, 100%.
Oh my god, yeah.
Yeah, that's the goal.
So we never know.
It's a dangerous sport.
But these guys, they train so.
They don't train hard.
So it's a low chance.
Lower chance of them.
Yeah.
So meaning the chance of them getting injured is not high.
They're probably going to have to fight.
Yeah, it's not high because they're both.
Tapura is just hitting pads.
He doesn't do anything else.
Geiji, he's super old.
He just maybe like playing.
He doesn't want to have a strong sparring because it's.
It's not good for him right now.
Well, for me, the challenge is I don't know if Dana would be good with Justin dropping out because it's a USA flag and it's 250.
It's okay.
I'll fight for USA.
I'll fight for you.
And for sure, they're going to be proud more than for Gigi.
I'm going to show a better fight than Gigi.
If you and Toporio.
Yeah, 100%.
I think the world wants to see that.
Yeah, everybody's waiting for that fight.
So, but if it's not happened now, it's gonna eventually happen.
Right.
And I take my time, I learn something new, I get better every day.
I'm not like, oh, why it doesn't happen like it didn't happen in January?
Why they didn't put it?
I'm not mad, I'm just waiting for my chance.
Did they call you at all for this fight or no?
For this card?
Were you at all?
Yes, they called me for the, you see, Chandler?
Rafi and Chandler?
They wanted me put against the Chandler.
And then they understood, like, It's bad for Chandler and he represents the US.
It's like 99.9 that I'm beating him.
So, and then they put Rufi.
So, if someone had hurt Rufi or Chandler, they might call me too.
Oh, so either one of them, they might call you.
Yeah.
Yeah, but ideal fight for you.
There's two people.
You want the title fight.
Yeah, I want the title fight.
Yeah.
So, and for you, in your mind, you told the story at the beginning.
You said you went and fought your first guy.
You lost.
You went to Thailand.
You trained for a year.
Then you came back and you beat the other guy.
And you, I think, submission, you said, right?
That you did to the guy.
Yeah.
Is that story going to repeat itself with Islam when you go back and face him off?
Is that kind of how you see that story taking place?
Right now, no, because I'm thinking about that title fight in my weight, 155.
He moved up, right?
He moved up to 170.
Yeah, but if he stays long in this game, yeah, I would like to go up and fight him.
But right now, my goal is to get the title fight in 155.
Probably in this summer and the end of this summer, or they give me BMF title in.
June 11th.
Oh, dude, you're so qualified for a BMF type of a.
Yeah, so they either BMF July or title fight at the end of this summer or September, October.
Toporia.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, listen, I love Justin, of course.
He's a fan favorite.
He was at the UFC in Miami when we were here just last week.
And when the audience sees him, he's got a big fan base, but he's at a different age 37.
Toporia is how old right now?
Is he 30?
Is he 29 or 30?
29.
29.
So he's 29 and you're 29.
Yeah.
What a perfect matchup.
I mean, if that's the main, if you guys end up, well, something needs to happen last minute for that to be the fight.
But that'd be a big one.
When you watch Taporia, what do you think about Taporia?
Because I had Taporia here on the podcast.
We had a very good conversation together.
Different kind of a fighter.
Yeah.
Right?
Different kind of a fighter.
Good fighter, good mindset, good boxer.
He so he used to be a wrestler and then he understood wrestling is a waste of energy and then he started boxing, he improved his boxing.
Now he boxed people because uh it's hard to wrestle and box you know 25 minutes, unless if you're Habib or Hamza, so they can wrestle 25 minutes non stop.
Uh, but nowadays he just does good, good thing.
It's a it's a box that's it.
He doesn't kick, he doesn't like wrestle.
So, his main thing is a box.
For me, it's easy because I have good kicks that I can stay on the kick distance.
And if he comes with a box, I wrestle him or I clinch him.
So, they know that too.
They're going to try to avoid, they're going to try to move up.
After this fight, he's going to say, They cannot fight me because it's like, even his teammates know it's a tough fight.
It's a tough fight.
Why we should take the tough fight if we can fight with Oliveira, Gagey, the guys who is like at the end of their career and they cannot do everything.
And they have a bad chin.
They drop so much.
So if they're going to hit them, they're going to lose, you know?
So yeah, that's the main thing.
So probably he's going to get the title.
He's going to defend the title and say, I'm going to leave this title.
He's going to leave this title.
So it's my opinion.
If he's on the camera, he's saying, I don't care, I fight Armand.
But when the time comes to fight Armand, he's always like trying to find excuses.
Well, you're a little bit, you're the one fight nobody wants, right?
You're the guy that everybody wants to delay.
But he's also formidable.
I actually think if the two of you guys fought, it would be one of the highest grossing viewership.
I think it can be the matchups because I don't think either one of you guys.
When Taporia fights, he's also good for the fans.
Yeah.
Like he doesn't show up.
There were certain fighters back in the days that they only fight for, you know, points, scoring.
They played safe.
And when you fight, you're not going to play safe either.
I think it would make for a hell of a fight for a lot of people.
A lot of people probably want that fight.
What has Taporia said about you when your name comes up?
Because I'm sure you watch everything he says about you in interviews.
Last time he was on the stream, I don't know.
He said, knocking me out or something.
I don't remember, to be honest.
He said he would knock you out.
I don't remember to be honest, but he said easy.
No, he said, I think easy.
I'll take this fight.
Yeah, yeah, probably.
No, no.
He said, what he's going to do?
He's going to wrestle me.
I'm going to defend.
What else?
He cannot box and I'm going to knock him out or something like that.
Rob, is this to pour you on the podcast?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
I don't remember what he said, but I do remember we talked about Armand.
Go for it.
Can you look at that, Rob?
I'm curious now because I is Charles is number, oh, Armand is number two.
Armand, number two.
So, would you fight an Armand before you go?
Like, let's just say Dana says, I want you to fight Armand before you fight Islam.
Would you entertain that?
He wouldn't tell me that.
He wouldn't tell you that?
No.
Dana would say Islam.
He would say for the belt.
He would say for the belt?
Yeah.
I think so as well because you're undefeated.
Of course.
Yeah.
There's no way that I have to fight to the number one contender.
I have to fight directly for the belt.
How soon do you think that would happen?
Personally, I don't know.
You pause right there, Rob.
Yeah, that moment, Islam was the champion.
So that's why.
So I was number one.
And Islam moved up.
Moved up.
And I was supposed to fight him.
And UC decided to put him versus Olivera.
How much you.
When it comes down to fighting, Armand, do they call you and they just tell you, here's who you're fighting?
Or do they call you and say, between these two, who would you rather fight?
They tell you to fight, or do you have a choice at times?
No, they never tell me.
They never give me like two names, only one name.
Here's your fight.
Yeah, and I'll take it.
And then no matter when they call you, you're going to take the fight?
I turned down just one fight because I was number 10, or I was number one, and they gave me like number 10 or 11, the guy who was losing everybody.
Yeah, because Dana did say one time he says, with Armand, he doesn't take all the fights.
We want people to take the fights.
I think he made a comment about that in the past.
How's the relationship with Dana?
I'm cool with him.
Okay.
Yeah, so I'm good with everybody in UFC, and I turned down the fight because they never give me a fight when I was number 10 or number 11 with number one contender.
Why I beat number nine?
Why I beat number eight?
Why you give this guy the present to fight with number one contender and he's nobody and he loses to Oliveira, he loses to Darius, he loses to Hooker, and I beat everybody, and you're going to give me this fight?
And I said, I don't want to give me the better fighters, like from top five, that I deserve it.
Where were you ranked when he gave you number 10?
I was number one.
Oh, so that's when he gave me.
Yeah, that's bad.
Just one fight in my life.
I turned out once in my life and I became the worst person ever.
But you have to know that's Dana, though.
You know, Dana, if Dana calls, you got to say yes.
I think Dana, he doesn't know what's going on, what fights he's offering me because he's on.
He decided on the title fights.
Even, I don't think so.
He decided title fights.
They just give him like this card.
He said yes or no, or maybe he can switch.
Because the hunter and matchmakers, they do all this work.
He doesn't do anything.
He just runs out like a business or like sponsorships, like big deals.
I think he's on a different level right now and he doesn't know what's going on over there.
You don't think he's.
Well, he did say he's no longer negotiating contracts.
Yeah.
He said moving forward, it's hunter and other people that are doing it, no longer me.
Yeah.
I think he just said that recently.
Yeah, and I don't think so.
He's like.
In making fights because he has matchmakers and Hunter, probably they just give him the card and he says yes or no.
I think, I don't know.
Yeah.
Because it takes so much time.
Can I imagine how much time he has to make all these fights?
Let me ask you a question.
Are you also a fan of the fight?
Are you a fan of UFC?
Yes, I'm a fan of it.
So you're a fighter, but you're also a fan.
You watch it as well.
Yes.
Okay.
If I have a time, I always fly to Vegas and watch.
Yeah, so thank God UFC gave me good tickets.
I'm still on, still alive.
So, let me ask you this it's almost so historically, all the best fighters in every weight class had a little bit of conflict with Dana.
It's not the regular ones, it's always the best ones.
Yeah, they had a little bit of issue.
It's almost like it's expected.
As and I'm talking as a fan, you're on the inside, I'm not on the inside, I'm just a fan that goes and uh.
Supports what's going on.
Do you see that as a common pattern?
Like, you know, the faces of the fighting game typically have a little bit of conflict with the top of UFC.
Yeah, because everybody wants to make more money.
So they hear, like, how much the NBA players, how much the football players are making, and UFC fighters want to make a lot of money, too.
And then they started, like, do the thing.
John Jones, not just, he wants big money.
Tapuria for the White House.
He wants Islam.
He asked the big money.
Everybody likes asking for big money.
That's why probably they argue.
So you think it's the money part?
Well, let me ask you.
Yeah, 100% money.
Let's say I'm negotiating on behalf of Dana.
For the next two minutes, I work for Dana.
For me, they send me a contract, I sign and give it back.
I don't even watch how much they.
That's exactly what I. At them hearts, no business.
If they were to say, okay, something happened to Justin.
I want you to be on the White House card, but we're not paying you nothing.
Would you take the fight?
100%.
So let me get this straight.
I mean, this is very important because we can save UFC some money right now.
Yeah.
If they called you from UFC right now and they said, take the fight against Ilya for zero, you take it, don't pay me nothing.
I got a watch in my contract to fight for the title.
I don't know how much I'm getting paid.
So, because last time before the hooker fight, they gave me a contract.
I said, okay, I'll sign it because I want to be a.
A normal guy in UC because I don't have too much tools.
They give me a contract, I sign.
It was good money, and I just signed it.
I didn't say, Oh, add me like 200 more because I want more money.
I said, Okay, I want to fight for the title.
They give me Hooker, I beat him, and then I go to fight for the title.
I beat Hooker, and then I'm wrestling on the RAF.
You headbutted.
You headbutted, and Dana didn't like that.
There's certain things he wants.
Do you have a relationship with Connor?
No.
Have you guys ever met?
Yeah, I fought on the same card as Connor.
Connor with Dana is good.
Habib is good.
Not like all fighters, bad with Dana.
Pay Per View Dreams00:15:47
A lot of fighters.
Like good with only maybe John Jones, who else?
And the now Ronda, meaning not good with UFC, yeah.
Yeah, but Connor was a little bit difficult at times, you know.
Connor, you know, he gave him a little bit of a hard time with you know, throwing that thing through the glass in the bus, but it's good for the UFC, yes.
It's you think they didn't like it, they like it.
So, are you thinking about throwing something through that window?
You're like, let me go grab the chair right now, yeah.
So, the drama, the sport, or why they this sport is.
Like getting big because of drama, not because of fighting, like Conor Habib, Diaz, you know, the trash talk, everything, not just fighting, what's going on before the fight, the boss thing.
It was like it went viral too, it was everywhere, yeah, because of that.
That fight was the most biggest fight in the UFC.
If it wasn't that conflict before that, okay, Conor Habib, yeah, they talk shit in the press conference and then fight.
It's gone.
Yeah, I saw what you said once.
I thought it was so funny.
You said to Toporia, correct me if I'm wrong here, I think you said, I'll buy your house if you fight me.
Did you say something like that?
I'll buy your $3.5 million house if you fight me.
Yeah.
So he was selling his house.
Right.
And he didn't have a fight.
And I said, Yeah, I'll buy his house.
And I mean, this is just trolling at its best.
I'll buy your house if you agree to fight me next.
Ilya Toporia has put his $3.5 million home for sale.
And my dad called me.
And I heard you're buying the house in Spain.
I said, Yeah.
When he said, When we're going to vacation, your dad said that?
Yeah, but who I'm going to call and he's going to say yes.
Yeah.
Did he respond back to you or no?
No, no.
Go a little bit down on the comment section, Rob.
Armand arriving in Madrid to buy Ilya's house.
Yeah, people are funny with you.
Yeah.
That's interesting.
So, how much of match?
Because right now, some people would say the UFC, they've had some good fights.
Like I was at this last one, no big names.
It was actually a very good card.
Like if you were at the fight, it was phenomenal.
Probably the best heavyweight fight that took place that went the distance.
You know, the last fight where, you know, he is, I don't know if he was ACL was torn or his knee, you know, and he kept getting kicked, kicked.
It's like, this is over with.
And then all of a sudden, boom.
And everybody was blown away by the fight the way it ended.
But a big card?
They haven't had that for a minute.
Yeah, but it's hard.
People are expecting every title fight is going to be drama, this, that.
And they didn't sell a lot of purple view or what's it called?
I don't know.
Pay per view?
Yeah.
But for example, all bigger star books now, like Hamza, big fight coming up.
Ilya, Pereira on the White House.
And.
UFC doesn't have so much stars to put on every card.
That's why, like, and the one fight pulled out too, the common event for the title, one versus I don't know who.
That's why they didn't sell a lot of tickets.
But you see, you never know.
You see the names, they don't have big names, and you come watch, and like the best fight ever, right?
Like you said, the heavyweight fight.
Mm hmm.
So that's why every event they have something special.
Matchmakers work good.
You said you're a fan.
So if you're a fan and everywhere you go, people are talking to you, they want to speak to you about UFC or different things.
If you could make three fights happen and you're a matchmaker, who do you create?
What fights would you want to see in the UFC?
In the UFC?
Jones versus Pereira.
Jones Pereira.
Armand versus Gage.
Oh, I remember Armand versus Ilya.
Okay.
And the next one, Hamza Chemaev versus Sean Strickland.
Strickland.
Those three fights.
Yeah.
Strickland has a fight that.
Yeah.
Versus Hamza.
Yeah.
And then Pereira, John Jones is a big fight.
They wanted to do that fight on the White House, I guess.
I think John asked for like 30 million, or I don't know what the number was, 15 million, and they didn't want to do it.
I read somewhere.
Maybe John asked for a bigger number, and they said, no, we're not going to pay it.
So it went to.
Went a different direction.
Yeah, in UC, a lot of fights you can do.
You can do a lot of fights.
145 is.
Jones wanted over 15 million.
Yeah, that's what it was.
15?
Jones wanted 15 million for the bout, and it failed due to a reported gap of 5 million.
Now keep in mind, this is, you know, ESPN reporting.
Yeah, but I think UC could pay him 50 million.
50 million?
15.
15 million.
Yeah, easy.
For the White House, he deserved it, 15.
And I think they could pay him.
It's something like a different issue.
It's my opinion.
Okay, so no chance at all.
No chance, yeah.
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I think, like, one of the biggest, biggest events ever, and you think they're not gonna pay 15 million?
For sure they paid.
Yeah.
They got a lot of money.
They got a lot of money.
I mean, if you.
And he has not a lot of fights left.
So, maybe one, two fights, John Jones.
And he's a legend.
And, like, Connor, he.
He made like 15 20 million right for the fights.
Can you pull up what are Connor's highest, you know?
No, on the boxing, he made a lot.
On the boxing, he made a lot.
In UC, he made, I think, for his purple view, something like 30 million, 20 something.
So, not the UFC, but on the including bonuses, five to six million bucks.
Is UFC 100 million?
Are you sure it's only five to six million bucks the most he made?
Can you ask the same question on ChatGPT, Rob?
And no, but you never know.
Maybe they pay him extra conversations.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But to me, extra bonuses.
UCL will send me extra bonuses.
Yeah.
A couple of days ago, they sent me 42K.
I don't know for what.
Maybe for my social media.
Are you serious?
Yeah, yeah.
Did they ever explain where it's coming from or no?
I didn't ask.
You just took the money.
Maybe my manager is going to say, hey, where's my person?
Yeah.
I was not saying.
So Eddie Alvarez, $6.8 million.
Interesting that Eddie's money.
What did he get paid on Khabib?
No way.
It was a $3 million flat fight.
It was Habib?
There is no way it was only $3 million.
McGregor claimed it was worth around $50 million total with pay per view.
Dustin, they got $5 million apiece.
What is the highest paid a UFC fighter got paid?
What is the highest?
You're never going to know because they used to pay the not on the books.
On the books.
Yeah.
I heard they pay so much money when it was for Titus.
Yeah.
Is UFC a publicly traded company now where they have to report?
Okay, zoom in on that one a little bit.
Where's the biggest payday total earnings?
But is that earnings to the fighter or is that earnings to UFC?
They say that that's all three fights combined between.
No, but I heard he makes around 20 million, the corner.
A fight?
Yeah, from Habib's five, he made like 20 or 30 million.
20 or 30 million?
It's good money, no?
Yeah, but if you look at the most, there's a, I think, four out of the five highest pay per view tickets ever sold, four out of the five counters in those fights.
If you go to the highest, Go to the highest UFC pay per view tickets sold.
Highest UFC pay per view tickets sold.
I want to know top five fights.
I think four out of five.
Connor's in all of them.
Okay, zoom in.
There you go.
Actually, five out of five is Connor.
Isn't that amazing?
2.4 million.
Damn.
1.8 million.
Poirier three.
1.6 million.
Poirier two.
1.6 million Diaz, two.
1.3 million Diaz, one.
Can I imagine 2.4 on how much is the per per per 100, 150?
70 bucks.
I don't know what it is.
I want to say it's probably 7,200 bucks.
So it's 200.
It's a million.
Damn.
80 bucks.
80 bucks times 2.4 million.
That's 200 million dollars right there.
Yeah, probably he makes around 30 million.
On those fights?
Habib maybe 10, 15, and he makes probably.
About 30 mil.
How much do you think it's fighting?
How much do you think it's his personality and ability to promote?
Fighting is 80%, 70%, and 30% is promote.
You think that's what it is?
Yeah.
So, okay, so you put 70 of it on a skill set, 30 of it on the promoting.
Yeah, if you're bad, you're not going to be in the 10%.
Interesting.
70-30.
That makes sense.
Yeah, you've got to be a good fighter to fight for the title.
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Unless if you're not Petty Pimlet.
Petty Pimlet, 10% fighting, 90%.
Trash talk and.
So you think 10%.
Patty's a pretty good fighter.
He's pretty.
Did you watch his last fight?
Yeah, that was not good.
But the previous one, you know.
Versus who?
Well, I've been to quite a few.
Yeah, he beat like Trash Canes.
They just give him so easy fights that even my dad can beat him.
Yeah, really.
He beat like Tony Ferguson, who has nine losing streaks.
He beat.
What was the.
Just put up his last fights, Rob.
Go down a little bit, it'll show his fights.
Chell Michael Chandler.
Michael Chandler.
Michael Chandler, 10 fights in UC9, loses.
Is that not Michael Chandler?
Approximately.
So click on Chandler's record?
No, King Green, King Green.
Check King Green.
Go on King Green, right?
King Green, brother.
Check his last 15 or 10 fights in UFC.
Okay, last 10 fights.
Go down?
3 3.
Like five losses, five wins, or maybe even lose.
Go to Chandler.
The thing with Chandler is that.
Of course.
The thing with Chandler is he's one of the most.
Chandler's first round may be the most exciting round in the first round.
If you can make it past the first round, But you're going to have a lot of pain.
Yeah.
Last one, two, three, four, five.
Last six fights, five loses.
Armand, respectfully, he almost beat Charles.
He almost beat Justin.
I almost was a UBC champion.
These were pretty good fights that he had.
I'm telling you.
And if you look at the two rounds, three rounds, two rounds, three rounds, five rounds, five rounds with Charles, yeah, he's.
He's a.
Last six fights, five loses.
That's crazy.
He's a pretty fun guy to watch.
Yeah.
He's a pretty fun guy to watch.
Like a fan, yeah.
First round, it's good.
His fight versus Gagey, Tapuria, or Poirier was good.
I mean, for fans, it's good to watch, but like a fighter, it's hard.
You don't think.
Today's what, Rob?
April 20th?
April 20th today.
420 today.
Okay.
So, and the White House card is when?
June 16th, I think?
June 16th, so two months till the White House card.
I'm sorry, June 14th.
You think there's a 0% chance Dana's going to make an announcement with a new fight?
If you call Trump and put Arman on the card and he's fighting for the U.S., and maybe they make it.
That's the strategy right there.
You got to call Trump and say this guy is the biggest star right now in the Armenian community.
Oh my God.
He wants to represent the U.S. Let me ask you, here's a question.
Serious question.
If, God forbid, something happens to Justin, by the way, when I was at the fight, Justin spoke to the president for 10 minutes.
They were standing talking to Justin.
So he's a fan.
They have a relationship and he's American.
So, but if something happens, Justin's not going, they put you in, can Ilya say no?
No, he cannot say no.
Okay.
Because it's a White House and if there are not going to be other names.
Who is going to be ready?
They cannot put anybody.
But you see, there are two guys in the 155 division.
There is a Chandler.
But can I imagine if they're going to say to me no and put Chandler fight for the title?
Oh, the audience will be so pissed off.
That's going to be the worst.
Oh, the audience will be so pissed off.
They would not be happy.
Or Rufi.
I don't know.
Well, let me ask you deep down inside, don't you think he wants to see that fight, you against Taporio?
Now they want to see that.
You don't think Dana wants to see that fight?
Right now, Dana wants to.
Why are you saying right now?
Because they can see what I'm doing on my social media, on my wrestling and everything.
I'm just bringing a lot of numbers and I post the April 1st picture, me versus the tourist.
And I gained more likes and views than the UC page announced a whole card.
Did you see that, Rob?
Do you know what he's talking about?
On April 1st, he posted that the fight is him against Ilya.
Did you post it on Instagram or Twitter?
Go on his Instagram and go to April 1st.
Where's the card?
I don't think you posted it.
There it is, right there.
One million likes.
White House, Washington, D.C.
This was posted on April 1st.
Yeah.
This just tells you people want to see this fight.
They're going to see that.
They're going to see this fight.
It's going to be one of the biggest fights.
I'm so excited for that fight too.
One Million Likes Viral00:06:41
I'm just working every day on that.
And they think I'm doing this content, but I train less.
But I was training and getting better.
Just show people that I'm chilling.
Yeah.
Is that Nina?
Yeah.
So, what's the story with you guys?
Are you guys dating?
No, Nina and me, we're the best friends.
Nothing.
There's nothing in between.
Nothing happened because we respect each other, you know.
So we just create the content.
There's chemistry there, though, bro.
Like, that's, you know, like when people watch you guys, there's a.
I just want to say one thing.
If you do something like, you're not going to post anything.
If you have something between you, you're not going to post it.
Yeah, so you don't, you don't going to show that who you're dating or like.
That's a show.
Yeah, this show, this is just the content we do together, and she has a boyfriend, so.
It's amazing.
Are you surprised by how well it performs?
Because her boyfriend, he creates the videos and he holds with her.
Wait, when you guys do the videos, her boyfriend's always there.
Yeah, yeah.
And is he a fighter as well or no?
No, he's a content creator.
He does every video and he's so smart and he does a lot of social media for her.
That's incredible.
They work together.
Wow.
This is him?
Yeah.
So he's.
He's a good looking guy.
I didn't know.
I thought she was single.
No, no, no, she's not single.
Is this her husband or her boyfriend?
Boyfriend.
Okay.
All right.
And he's doing the content.
Yeah, we're like my team and her team, and he's always on her team and he helps her with everything.
Did you say earlier you have kids or you don't have kids?
I don't have two kids.
You have two kids?
Yeah, two kids.
So are you married or?
I'm married.
You are married.
Yeah.
God.
So my youngest daughter, she's like a fighter, but the older one, she doesn't like fights or anything.
Two girls.
Yeah, maybe the young one is going to be a fighter.
And Armand, you're married to an Armenian?
Yeah, yeah.
To an Armenian from where you're at.
Yeah.
Very cool.
Yeah.
That was my mom's dream.
My mom's dream was, you know, my son is going to marry an Armenian.
Yeah, but it doesn't matter.
If you find the right person, who cares?
Armenian, American.
I agree.
Look, white, Chinese.
Is two enough for you, or are you going to keep making babies?
I can't speak for you.
11 kids.
11 kids.
That's the goal.
Yeah.
Armand, are you a Christian?
You're a Christian.
Yeah.
Got it.
You're thinking like to gain three more wives?
Well, you can speed it up because, you know, there are certain markets that you can accelerate that process.
You know, I don't know if.
No, nowadays you can do the thing.
What's it called?
Surrogate.
Surrogate, yeah.
What do you think about that?
I think it's okay.
Would you entertain it?
If you want no more kids, yeah.
I brought it up to my kids.
My youngest son is like, You can never have surrogate.
I said, Why?
I said, it's your mommy and daddy's, it's your brother or sister.
He says, no, no, if it's not in my mom's stomach.
No way.
I'm telling you, he told me.
No, by the way, he is, he looks Armenian.
His mom's white, Texan, but Dylan looks Armenian and he has the Armenian temper and blood.
He is.
He's going to be a fighter, huh?
We'll see what he does.
Right now, he plays, he plays, he's the one to the left.
He plays soccer and he does some other sports, but we'll see.
We'll see what's going to happen with him.
By the way, did you ever train with any Armenian fighters?
Like, are you, did you train with other Armenian UFC fighters?
Yeah, I trained to Melzik, Edmund, Shagwazan.
Yeah, so, but they're in different weight class.
That's why we don't train together.
And they cannot keep up with me.
Who's going to keep up with you today, though?
Yeah, that's hard.
So, but you see, me and Hamza, we did together.
And like, when we were in the gym, I was.
Argue who does this better, who does this better.
So, but I'm the number one on the bike, cannot break my record.
You're the number one on the bike, yeah.
In bike, what's number one?
Like, who can go the fastest?
Who can like keep more watts on the bike?
I'm number one from garage, so put the garage thing, yeah, yeah.
This one, so in this bike from fighters, nobody can beat me.
Other thing, and this thing for the shoulders, yeah.
So, two of those, uh, nobody.
But other things like running, speed running, or like, I don't know.
What an exercise.
So they drop the ball while you're carrying the weight as well.
You're pushing up the weight.
Yeah, this is Coach Carl, and he has his own garage.
He doesn't like fancy things.
We just go there and train hard.
And he pushes ourselves so much.
So when I'm at home, I want to try to break the record.
I cannot because he's not there.
I got to listen to his voice, and he's trying to push me so much.
Is he your coach or is he his coach?
It's my coach.
And then when he came and he trained with him, he liked it.
So, yeah, so good coach.
But he has his own coaches too with him, like jujitsu and boxing.
Yeah.
With you doing the life that you're living right now, how much is the expense on a monthly basis?
How much money are you spending?
In one place, I said $500,000, but it was wrong.
Was it more or less?
My dad called me after that.
Where you spent $500,000?
Now I got to say $100,000.
You got to tell him $100,000.
I mean, so I have a big team, right?
I have a big team.
I have coaches.
I have like a lifestyle family.
If you're buying like a voucher, we're buying houses, we're buying cars.
If you're going to count everything, it's going to be $500,000.
Per month.
Yeah.
So your lifestyle expense right now is $6 million a year.
Government Support Systems00:15:06
About.
And is your fighting income and sponsorship paying for that lifestyle or not yet?
About, yeah.
So about.
Yeah, and I have businesses in Russia that I make money.
Yeah, so.
And I always have on my back Russian money.
So if I need it, I can.
You have access to that as well.
I call it, so.
Yeah, you have access to that as well.
Yeah, you know, I grew up there.
I live there, so I know how to make money over there.
What's Russia to you?
We're in America.
So to us, you know, we.
You know, we have a different, you know, Americans may have a different impression of, you know, Russia.
What's Russia to you?
What makes Russia special for you?
Wherever I go to travel, to stay, you want to go back to Russia.
No matter here, Miami, so beautiful roads, beach, food, cars, yachts, but you don't feel like you're at home and you want to go back to home.
My home is in Russia.
I grew up there.
I like nature there.
I like food there.
Everything that's going on over there, I like it.
Do you see yourself as a Russian or Armenian?
Say again.
You see yourself as Russian or Armenian?
Citizen?
No, do you see yourself?
Dukarsma's highest?
Rusas.
No, no, I'm Armenian.
You're Armenian?
Yeah, I'm Armenian, but I live in Russia.
And where I live in Krasnodar, it's like a lot of Armenian people, like about 500,000 Armenian people live.
Where you're at now?
Yeah, it's like a Glendale in the US.
Over there.
Yeah.
I got to go to, I've never been to.
Yeah, Russia, it's good.
It's clean, it's safe.
It's clean, it's safe.
Yeah, if you compare to the US, it's safer and cleaner.
Russia?
Yeah, Russia.
Safer and cleaner.
So safe.
Tell me why it's safer.
So you can walk anywhere, any watches, nobody can come and try to grab you.
Why is that?
Why do you think?
Because people are scared to do something.
Why?
Because they go to jail right away.
They're not going to sue with you or do something.
If you steal, you go to jail.
And they clean the mafia, everything.
Now it's.
It's a so safe country, and I've never heard like someone scared about watch.
For example, here or LA, you cannot go somewhere with your watches or with your cars, you cannot get in some certain places.
But in Russia, you can go anywhere, any places, and never happened because people are afraid of the consequences and because of that.
And they clean the bad people too, so they're in the jail.
So all mafia in the jails now, or like they're.
Abroad from Russia.
Wow.
So that's why I never think about bodyguards in Russia or like, oh, my family cannot go outside or something.
But here, I'm like, everybody, every celebrity has a bodyguard.
Every fighter who has a big name, they have a bodyguard.
And people there respect you so much, especially if you're a fighter or they don't even come and like try to ask you about something, get the picture.
They just respect your time, you know?
Over there.
Over there.
And if they tell them you're in a rush, so they let you go.
But here they can talk to you, you know, and like say, no, no, stop.
I want a picture, this, that.
And then you need someone to say to them, please, he gotta go.
So people here, they don't afraid that they can get a problem.
But there they're afraid because, you know, they let you do whatever you want to do.
Think of Putin?
Is it a high level of respect and admiration?
Yeah, mostly people like him because they live there.
They respect what he's doing.
They like him.
And so.
Have you met him yet?
Yeah, two times.
Really?
Yeah, two times.
And I was fighting for his team.
So we got the pictures.
You can put it.
Yeah, so you see young me.
Oh, wow.
How old are you here?
20 years old.
Arma, it's a very different look.
Yeah, but I was 20 or 19.
And what was this year?
It was 17 or 18.
It says 2025.
Five the first time.
Yeah, but the day there.
Yeah.
So I was fighting two times.
He has his own promotion.
It's once a year.
Once a year in the Sochi.
And the Russian fighters versus the world.
So they bring all fighters from the world.
And yeah, they fight.
Is that Fedor?
It's a Fedor, yeah.
Really?
Wow.
Man, he still has the.
Matter of fact, he looks better now.
Yeah, he's feet now.
Yeah, he looks better now.
What did Putin tell you?
Was it just a meeting or did he say anything?
I asked her, Can I take a picture?
She said, Of course, of course, you take a picture.
And then, yeah, he's cool and he likes the fighter.
He helps so much fighters and wrestlers and everybody in Russia.
So if you're a wrestler, for example, here, government, they don't pay money to you.
But in Russia, we get paid.
If you're like an Olympic team, if you're a Russian champion, you get paid money.
If you win.
Once in your life, Olympic game, Olympic medal, you getting paid all your life until you die.
You're serious?
Yeah, yeah, you can check this information.
So you win one medal, you're getting paid for the rest of your life?
Yeah, like $1,000.
For the rest of your life?
Yeah, but can you imagine if you win three times, you're getting paid $3,000 or $4,000 every month for the rest of your life?
Every month, yeah, you can check it out.
Very interesting business model.
So it's not like you're getting paid one time.
Because in America, I think we pay you one time.
One time?
No, America doesn't pay even one time.
They tell you, you gotta.
Find the sponsorship and they pay you to fund you that way, huh?
But in Russia, they pay their medalists, so there's an incentive to win for the rest of your life.
But can you check?
Uh, they pay you how much they pay, Rob?
Can you check to see it?
Go, go to uh, yeah, go and ask and say, What does Russia pay its Olympic athletes if they win a medal?
It was like $800, like I heard.
Because I have a lot of friends who have one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Metal, M E D A L.
Okay, there you go.
So for recent Beijing, Russia has paid roughly $50,000 to $60,000 for gold, $30,000 to $35,000 for silver, $20,000 to $25,000 for bronze.
Some broader estimates go a little bit lower.
But here's the real kicker Russia often goes above and beyond just cash, luxury cars, apartments worth half a million to a million out, regional bonuses from local governments, extra payouts from sports federation.
Total rewards can be hundreds of thousands of dollars to a million plus.
Wow.
Yeah.
It's an Olympic sport.
They take care of them so much.
So, for example, if you want to be a box, you go to school, you don't pay money.
If you're a wrestler, you go to school, you don't pay money for the sport.
How do they define you that you have to be at a certain level of skill set?
No.
If you're a kid, you go to the school, you don't pay money for your sport in Russia.
No matter how old you are.
No matter.
If it's not commercial, there is like a.
Every area has its own, the government pays for that school that kids can train for free.
So you go there.
So when I was young, I was wrestling, right?
Even the government pays me for my traveling.
If I travel to somewhere to compete, they pay us money for our travel, even.
Yeah, they take care of Olympic sports so much.
And they, for example, you're a fighter, even Habib, he got paid for his gym.
Put him, uh, build for him a gym.
For example, you're a gold, you want a gold and you want to build your own gym, they give you money to build your own gym.
If you're a gold medalist.
Yeah.
So, so Russia, so Putin helped Khabib build his gym.
Yes.
That is powerful.
Yeah.
I mean, they, they take care of, for example, somewhere, you go somewhere in Russia, if you're a fighter or wrestler in government or somewhere, they take care of you because you, you do something for your country.
They take care of you so much.
So it's the, yeah, they take care of you different.
So, how to know that?
I mean, in the US, it's an opportunity to make so much money.
It's a lot of good things here, a lot of good things there.
Do you get sponsorship money there or no?
It's mainly from the government.
In Russia, no, I got.
So you get sponsorship as well?
Yeah, I got energy drink in Russia.
In Russia, that'll pay you as well.
Yeah, yeah.
So you get a little bit of both.
Yeah.
There's a long term after UFC.
Do you know?
Do you have any thoughts of what you're going to do after UFC?
Or depends how much money I make, but uh, I want to live, I want to have a house in like I want to live in Russia, my home base, but I want to travel around the world, come to U.S., enjoy Miami, and then from Miami to LA, from LA to New York, from New York to Hawaii, and then go back because the winter time is not the best weather in Russia, but uh, from May to October is Russia weather.
Can you pull up Russia's map, Rob?
Just curious to know what part you're from.
Go to Sochi.
I want to show our.
Yeah, right there.
The mountains that we do.
We ski, we do snowmobile, everything over there.
So, where here?
This is Sochi.
Go to Krasnopolyana.
This is Sochi, yeah.
This is the biggest.
This is the sea.
So, this is the mountains.
Can you put the Sochi Mountains?
It's beautiful.
Just the pictures, pictures.
Yeah, from the browser.
Yeah.
Yeah, check it out.
Oh my God.
Better than Kurk Shavel.
Oh my God.
Click on that picture right there, Rob.
The first one.
Zoom in on that picture.
So beautiful.
Wow.
Yeah.
I mean, when you stay in Russia a long time, you want to leave from there too.
You want to go somewhere, travel, and then come back.
Totally makes sense.
Yeah.
But we're never going to get you in the US.
You're never going to be living here.
You're always going to go back to Russia.
I mean, I like to be here from November.
From May to November.
November, December, January, February, March.
And April, maybe.
Yeah.
Six months here, six months there.
May to November there, and then the rest over here because the weather.
Yeah.
And you're home here.
You were telling me.
You were saying you.
L.A., L.A. When I landed to L.A., I feel like I'm in Russia as well.
Armenia.
Yeah, Russia.
Because when I'm in Armenia, I cannot stay a long time there.
Everybody knows me, it's hard.
I got to go.
Have you met the prime minister of Armenia yet, Pashinyan, or no?
Have they ever reached out to you?
No.
Never.
Never.
Would you want to go meet him?
I mean, I did so much for this country.
Of course, I would like to.
I'm surprised they've never reached out to them to do something because.
I'll make one phone call.
They never done something for me, you know, like the.
At least maybe.
Give me a small medal that I'm doing there and putting the flag on my shoulders and like running out in the whole US, you know?
Oh, they're going to reach out to you.
There's no way in the world.
If you got a guy like you that you're doing what you're doing, I have a.
For sure, they know about me.
Of course, they know about me.
I mean, I don't need their help, but if they want to help me, I'll be glad, you know?
Yeah, I think if you were to go visit.
But Armenians from Russia, they help me.
So Armenians from Russia, they help me a lot.
How do you view the difference?
Yerevan Sea.
No, no, no.
I'm saying because my friends from Russia who are in business, they help me.
They give me houses, they give me apartments.
So, yeah.
Armand, question for you.
Can you, like, what does it mean to be Armenian?
Because to me, I'm Armenian and Assyrian, but what does it mean to be Armenian?
For me?
Yeah.
I'm proud to be Armenian.
I'm proud to represent Armenia and I want to be a first Armenian champion.
And so in UC, we don't have like a number of contenders, like good fighters who is going to be a champion very soon.
But.
I'm going to sign young kids and I see the potential so big.
Maybe because of me, because of the sport is growing up so fast, getting so popular.
That's why a lot of kids are training.
And now I have a couple kids who are like 19, 18.
And if they're going to be in UBC, they can be a champion.
Back in Russia?
Mostly in Russia.
Yeah.
Mostly in Russia because in Armenia it's not so popular, but we got someone from there too.
And.
I want to bring the belt.
I want to represent Armenia and be a first champion because Russia has already a lot of champions.
So, yeah.
But anyway, I'll belt first.
Belt first, and then I'll bring to Armenia.
So, like.
Oh my God, that would be a spectacle.
Arman John, let me tell you, you know, everybody I speak to in the Armenian side, when they talk about you, you are beloved.
They love you.
Thank you.
Absolutely love you.
And you got, you know this already, so I don't need to tell you this.
They're rooting for you, and we can't wait for the day.
I got it.
And I like Ilya.
I like Taporia.
You know, there's something very, because both of you guys, what's going to make this exciting, both people have a lot of pride from the country they're from.
He's got a very interesting dynamic.
It'll be interesting to see how much animosity there is between Spain and Russia.
Bringing Glory To Armenia00:02:26
I don't know.
Spain, Russia, Armenia versus Georgia.
That's right.
I was born in Georgia.
My home, like, For example, when we go to Armenia, we stay there one day and then drive back to Georgia and stay there because our home is in Georgia.
So we'll build a new house now in Georgia, and all my family live there.
So even like we're close to Georgia.
So now, like Armenia versus Georgia, but I live in Russia and he lives in Spain, and like they're gonna know who is the best fighter in 155 division because in Russia.
Yeah, I'm Armenian, but Russian people, they support me so much too.
They know I live there.
They know I'm going to bring the belt in the Russian home, you know?
If it doesn't happen on the White House card, and if your ideal place that you would want to fight Toporia, where would it be?
No matter when, no matter where.
Anytime, anywhere.
Anytime, anywhere, I just need that belt.
Even not Toporia, I don't care.
Like, I just need to be a first get the belt and then I'm gonna get the this hat, the big hats, so big names.
Because right now, for me, it's number one to be a UC champion.
And I know, I know myself, I know my skills, I can beat them.
It's not gonna be a big problem for me.
Yeah, this is good side quest, the REF grappling like a media, but at the end of days, if they ask me.
Uh, what are you gonna take UFC belt or this old thing?
So, I need just UFC belt because I wake up and I do this for UFC title too.
I'm not doing this because like I need that because like make money from that, just that UFC gonna know that it's a big name because of this media.
I'm making my name bigger and my goal is UFC so.
Right now, it's that.
But then, when I become a UFC champion, I'm going to go for the names and make money.
Currency Of Attention00:10:31
Because, like, you know, my lifestyle is expensive.
Yeah, it's expensive.
And thank God I got money.
Have you thought about starting a product?
Are you working on a product?
Because.
No, yet.
I don't want to think about business that's going to take my time.
So that's why.
I'm just focusing only on my social media and on my trainings.
Because when I'm done, when I'm going to be like done with UC sport, when I'm going to be like 37, 38, yeah, I'm going to do my products or something.
But I think when I'm going to be 37, I'm not going to need products and then everything.
So I'm going to have a bunch of money, good investments, and like family man.
So enjoy retirement.
Yeah, and you'll be in Russia from May to November and in LA or Miami or other places November to April.
Maybe April.
You said March.
Yeah, from November, beginning of November.
And then October, beginning of November here and then March.
All right.
But summertime, sometimes in Europe too.
In Europe too?
Yeah.
It's your favorite spot.
In Europe?
Yeah.
To be honest, I like all spots.
Yeah, I like to travel around Europe.
Have you been all over?
No, not yet.
Not yet.
But I've been to a lot of places.
Have you been to Monaco yet?
Yeah.
You've been to Monaco?
Yeah.
I'm assuming you love Monaco.
Yeah, for sure.
Central Bay.
With my lifestyle, yeah.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
With your lifestyle.
That's a.
When you go to Monaco, you realize how broke you are.
Yes.
You go to Monaco, you know the average net worth of a person living in Monaco is $30 million?
No, I feel broke every day because I have a lot of friends who is like a.
who has a lot of money when they talk about money and I talk about two, three millions.
Yeah.
Like.
They're laughing at me.
So everybody has his own thing, you know?
Yeah.
That's why, so we work on it.
You know, everybody has his own.
But you have the one skill set that's very hard, Armand.
You have a.
So, you know, currency isn't different.
You know, Bitcoin could be a currency.
Real estate is a currency, right?
Stocks is a currency.
All this stuff is a currency.
Getting attention is a currency.
And, dude, You are a master at getting attention and you do it in the most effortless way.
And that currency, people pay, there's a reason why for Super Bowl they pay $10 million for a 30 second commercial to get in front of 110 million people.
And you don't have a problem doing that.
Yeah.
What about Bitcoin?
It's at 65, 70,000 right now.
You know, if it goes to half a million, that's 8x.
You know, I think if you're making money, you got to.
Rob, it went up 3.4% today?
Yes, sir.
Really?
Interesting.
Do you buy Bitcoins?
I have Bitcoin.
I have Bitcoin.
I, you know, not a lot though.
I probably have less than 5 million in Bitcoin.
But my money is more in equities.
I have probably 100 million in real estate.
You know.
The best real estate in Russia, by the way.
Best real estate in Russia.
Tell me why.
Safety.
Safety and it never falls.
So it's going up so much.
Really?
Yeah.
Russia real estate.
Yeah.
And if you have a friend who is developers and they give you a good price and you can make, and you can double your money in one year.
In Russia.
So if you want to make money, let me know.
We make money there.
Let's do it.
So we're going to buy a property in Russia together.
This means.
No, no, no.
For example, like, sorry for interrupting you.
For example, you buy a commercial or a house, right?
Here, you got to wait like 20 years.
For example, you buy a commercial for $100,000.
Sure.
For example, and you give it to rent.
You're getting back your money in 20 years here.
But in Russia, you get back in eight years, eight to 10.
How is that?
You're saying the rate of return is that good in Russia?
Yeah, better than here because I calculate everything.
And yeah, their return is faster.
And the price is growing faster too.
Are you investing a lot right now as well or no?
Yeah, I invest mostly in Russia.
Mostly in Russia.
Because I know people, developers, connections, content.
I know where.
But your dad was also in construction.
Yeah.
So he knows everybody.
That's why it's easier.
For example, if I buy something, he does everything inside.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, outside.
So we don't waste time.
And you can't get ripped off because you know that business.
Your dad knows that business.
You see, that's half the battle.
Half the battle is the average person that gets into an industry, it takes three, five years, you know, seven years of making mistakes, and then you make money.
Yeah.
But if you can get into a space that you already have the context, the relationship, and somebody can teach you to not make the mistakes, there's nobody better than a dad to share that with you.
I can't wait to meet your dad.
I'm actually curious to know what his personality is.
He needs an American visa.
He cannot get the American visa.
Five times he was in the embassy, five times he didn't give him.
I don't know why.
He is not a terrorist.
Five times he tried to get it, they didn't give it.
Yeah, but maybe they ask him questions and he's like a worry, you know, that he wants to get the American visa so much.
That's why he's worried and they think like he has something to hide, you know.
I think when you become a champion, you're going to be able to do a lot of things you want to do.
Yeah, yeah.
And it'll be a phone call.
Yeah, but it's okay.
Me to be a champion, he's going to be good in Russia, too.
So just bring their belt to him and give it to him.
He's going to be happy to.
Yeah, but I want.
He likes the US.
I don't know why.
People who never been in the US, they like more than who is in the US.
Everybody wants to come here.
It's true.
It's true.
Yeah.
It's a land of opportunity.
Yeah.
Because you can, like.
Create something and like you can't.
What's different?
You go, you're in Russia all the time.
Yeah, because in Russia, less people, less money.
People have no so much money like here.
For example, you open the restaurant, right?
Here's so much people coming, tourists.
A lot of people live here and you're going to have customers.
And for example, in Russia, if you're smart, the millionaires and billionaires are less in Russia because it's hard to, how do you say?
For example, here you have a lot of opportunities, so much.
In Russia, if you're smart, You can make more money than here.
But here, like for example, you came from Russia, you have nothing and you're not the smartest person ever.
You can even go to Uber, you make money six or seven thousand and you can afford the house for your family and food.
But in Russia, if you're like an Uber driver, you cannot afford it.
You got to do something different.
Because of people.
Because of people.
So, for example, people don't have so much money like here.
They have money.
The average salary in the US is.
Bigger than in Russia, and here a lot of tourists so much tourists.
LA, a lot of tourists can how many flights is landing in Europe?
Russia doesn't have a lot of tourists, not so much like here because the weather, maybe because the weather and visas.
I think, and like, uh, they don't have so much thing like us has, you know, from movies.
Everybody wants to come to go to New York to see New York, Miami.
Every movie is from Miami, everybody has a dream to come to see ocean.
The ocean drive, or was it called that?
Because of movies, everything is coming from here, and like people, what a way!
I mean, it's crazy because when I was in Iran, we watch movies about here, so everyone's like, Rocky, oh my god, you want to go see what you know, New York is looking like, and all this stuff.
And the movie industry almost promoted and sold America to the world, yes, everybody wants to come from New York.
If you're gonna ask every girl in Russia, where you want to go, I want to go to New York, and they don't know, like.
Maybe it's not the cleanest city in the world.
It's not the safest city in the world, but everybody wants to go there.
Yeah.
And that's why they bring a lot of tourists here.
Well, a lot of men here want to go to Russia, find a wife, and come back here because Russia's got some beautiful women over there.
Yeah, one of the best.
One of the best.
Great genetics.
Yeah.
So you got to come, Russia.
I look forward to it.
I really want to go to Russia.
And then you're going to see what's different from Russia.
Where do I go if I go there?
Like, if you tell me two places to visit, I'll.
Of course, I think I got to go to Moscow, Leningrad.
Yeah, yeah, that place is.
And then you come to Sochi.
We go to Mountain.
Okay.
We eat good food.
Was that video on Sochi, the snowboarding?
No, it was in Khrushchev.
It was in Khrushchev?
Yeah.
Got it.
Yeah, I really want to go to Russia for a couple of weeks.
Yeah, you will love Russia.
You will love Russia.
Yeah.
I mean, I have friends who live all his life in the US, but they come to Armenia and they want to go, or Russia, they want to go back.
Because they grew up here, they love their life.
Should I worry?
Like, should my wife be worried that if I go to Russia, maybe I don't come back?
Or will I come back?
I will come back, but maybe not alone, okay?
You're so funny.
We're not gonna tell.
My wife's gonna be like, babe, why are you going to Russia so often?
All of a sudden, Rob, we're setting up a podcast set in Russia where there's six months out of the year, business changes, lifestyle changes.
Yeah, but everywhere is good.
Everywhere is good if you have the right people.
New Jersey Title Defense00:15:13
And so, I mean, you as nobody like.
Do they treat you good when you're in the streets here?
Does anybody bother you?
They're all respectful.
No, so good.
Respectful and yeah, for example, yesterday I was sitting on the table and like one drunk guy came and like trying to like, like, he did like this, like, squeezing your crap, squeezing.
I'm like his kid, you know.
And that day, I don't know why my friends gave me like bodyguard, but I don't need bodyguard, right?
So he squeezed me and like I turned like he was like an Albanian guy, you know, bro.
I respect you.
This, that, I said, bro, like, if you respect me, why you like treat me like your kid.
Sorry, I was drunk.
He was a good guy.
So he said, Sorry, this, that.
But can I imagine if he was starting, like, Why are you saying that?
And then.
So when I, like, Choran, the bodyguard said, I was already angry, like, Why are you, like, treat me like this?
I'm not your kid.
Like, come and, like, squeeze my shoulder or whatever.
Don't do that if you respect me, right?
You told him that.
Yeah.
And I said, If you respect me, don't do that.
Albanians are tough.
Albanians are also tough.
Yeah.
But it's.
I mean, in the U.S., you can meet everybody.
Yeah.
Has anybody tried to fight you or no?
At all.
Has there ever been a time where you travel and someone try to fight you?
No.
No.
So, no yet, maybe.
But if they want to fight me, it's not a problem.
I know how to fight, not get hurt myself.
No, I think it's a bad idea.
This is the thing, you know, sometimes where you go and one time, do you remember Diego Sanchez?
Old UFC fighter?
Yeah, yeah.
He used to go, yes, yes, yes.
He was one of my favorite fighters.
One day, One of our friends, he goes to a party at a house in LA and he has no clue who he is.
And my friend's a regular guy.
He's not like a tough guy.
He's not a fighter, but he's a big guy.
He walks up to him and says something to him.
And Diego looks at him.
He says, You say one more thing, I'm going to kill you.
And Diego looked scary, right?
When he was fighting.
He comes back around.
He's like, I'm going to go kick that guy's ass.
And then one of Diego's people walks over and says, Listen, just want to let you know, that's the wrong guy to fight.
That's Diego Sanchez.
Yeah.
It looks like the challenge is you pick on sometimes the wrong guys who know how to fight.
Who knows what could happen?
And nowadays, you know, Armand, more and more people are learning how to fight.
30 years ago in LA, people would fight all the time.
You don't know who you were fighting.
So at least two people who don't know how to fight, they're fighting.
They just have a temper.
Now, there are more people who know how to fight today than 30 years ago.
Yeah, for sure.
But, you know, all time something happened, right?
I meet every day some different people.
I can feel like.
You know, for example, if they tell me like even bad words, I just turn and go.
If he's not a fighter or he's not like, if he didn't like do something to me, why do you do that?
Why do you walk away?
Because I don't need the trouble.
First of all, I don't want to hurt him.
I don't, I have like a goal.
I have a family.
I'm not stupid.
Like, go to jail and I can every day something happen with me because right now I'm famous and like a lot of people come do this, that.
Like, for example, in Russia, if someone come and squeeze me and if my friends see that, they're gonna like fight him right away.
Or just like a different.
That's because they can fight him.
They're not going to do that because they're afraid.
They're not like come and touch someone, even like a fighter.
How you can come if you respect him, like touch like this?
In Russia, that won't happen.
It won't happen because they know they're going to get kicked out from this place, even.
By the way, what happened with Ryan Garcia?
You had your friend with you and he said, hey, punch him in the stomach for $40,000.
No, he has $40,000 with him.
Okay.
He said, He wanted to punch Ashton Hall, the guy who is running.
The runner, yes.
And Ashna has said no.
I said, bro, like 40,000 for me, it's nothing.
Double it, I'll take three punches.
He said, no, I'm not rich like you, this, that.
I said, okay, here's my friend.
You want to punch him?
He said, yes, let's do it.
And he put money on the strayers.
I said, bro, I don't have cash with me.
I'll show him my bank account that I have 40K there.
I said, I'll leave my phone here.
When we're done, if you could hit him, Hurt him and he's gonna drop.
I'll wire you right away because in my culture, if you shake the hand and like we bet, you gotta give back money.
You cannot like say so.
He punched it three times, he couldn't drop him.
And I took the money, and his accountant or whatever came and said, Bro, here's more than 40,000.
Let me go upstairs, like count money, and then come back.
I said, Okay.
He came back without money.
I said, Where's the money?
No, no, bro, we wire you.
We need this money for tonight.
We do something.
I said, right, no.
I need now my money.
He said, bro, I swear to God, like a man word, I'm going to give you, I'm going to wire you tomorrow.
One week, nothing.
And my, I was in, I was, I was, someone like interviewed me, did you get paid back?
I said, no, he didn't send me money.
And he didn't, you never got the money?
Yeah.
And he didn't even like call me, what's your wire or why I'm not sending.
And I FaceTime you.
I FaceTime him and I said, bro, like, what's going on?
Bro, you didn't tell me your guy is a professional boxer.
I said, why should I tell you, like, he's a professional boxer?
He's my friend.
I said, this is my friend.
If you want to punch him, punch him.
I'm not stupid, like, to say you, like, oh, listen, he's a professional fighter.
He's going to take your shots, and I'm not going to bet you.
I'm going to bet you.
So he thought you hustled him.
Yeah.
So I'm a smart guy.
Like, I want to bet and make money, right?
So why should I tell him he's a professional boxer?
And you see, he's like a huge guy with a broken nose.
You got to think, like, He's yeah, he's he does something and then he fought with him.
He did the boxing, uh, the sparring with him on the body shot when the same day.
And he didn't say this guy's professional, he didn't say anything.
Oh, so before this, they sparred.
No, after this, they sparred.
Okay, so you want to show the is this the punch?
Let me see it real quick.
Let me see it real quick, Rob.
No, neither.
It's gonna be right here.
He knows the point that he can't hit.
All right, come on.
I don't think I can do that.
So he felt it that he's not going to drop it because he's a boxer.
He felt it.
He's not going to drop it with his one punch.
And he has two left.
He stopped it and he's saying, I don't want to hurt him because he already knows he's not going to drop him.
Listen to what he's saying.
I'd rather spar.
I'd rather spar.
Now he wants to spar.
I'm going to rather spar him.
Yeah, you take it, brother.
I'm going to let a man try to hit me.
I'll pick my own.
Okay.
Yeah, you guys got it.
Wait, you took the cash, then this guy comes and takes them from you, and you never got the money.
No, no, and then I said, no, it's not fair.
They'll punch him two times again.
Let's do it.
I'd rather fight.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, no, he threw three times.
He couldn't drop him.
No, hey, dude.
Hey, oh, no.
They did.
Good doing business with you, brother.
Sad face for me.
Nasce in me, Paget, custas.
So, and then they sparred, but uh, to be honest, I don't care about 40k.
Just uh, so you never got the money, no, no.
And then I called him and said, Bro, like, what's going on?
Why you didn't say money, bro?
He said, Bro, it was a stream, so we always do on the stream like this.
And I said, Okay, so what I'm gonna say to him, we have a different culture, they do stream and they do, um, yeah, but you're a serious guy, yeah, they live like this.
I live different, and then he said, Let's let's do sparring.
Let's do eight rounds, this, that.
I said, okay, let's do sparring, but box, but let me use my elbows.
He said, no problem.
So now we're waiting.
We're going to do a sparring.
So I can box him, but I have elbows.
You're not worried about it if you box him against Ryan?
No.
So you can't kick or wrestle.
It's just boxing, except you can use elbows.
Yeah, I can use elbows.
And you think you're going to hang with Ryan?
Yeah, I'm going to try.
Ryan's a Ryan.
Yeah, he's a legit wrestler.
Oh, there's no question.
Elbows could help me too.
Elbows could help you.
He's.
He never hit with elbows.
Elbows, there is nothing.
Yeah.
It's nothing.
Yeah.
Even.
Oh, it hits the face.
Yeah, one card.
That's it.
Yeah.
So, and then.
Now, you got to get Indo, right?
You got to get him, because he's got the reach.
Now, he said, after that conversation, he tweeted, let's do eight rounds.
I'll pay you 100k.
So, eight rounds.
And I tweeted him back, I'll give you cash, one million, if you survive one round in a minute.
So now she's waiting, just waiting.
But it's just trash talking, you know?
Yeah.
And he's good at it as well.
He's good on his thing.
I'm good on my thing.
Yeah, totally.
Both of you guys get eyeballs.
You know, at one point, he was the guy in the boxing time.
And I hope he gets back into it because he's actually a very exciting fighter.
Yeah.
He's a very exciting fighter.
Fast.
So.
Yeah, he is very rare you.
But now I know if I'm going to do a stream with him, I'm not going to bet money.
Or if you do take the money and don't give it to his accountant when he comes up to you.
First time in my life, someone like.
You say stuff like this.
If an Armenian sees him in the streets, you don't want the Armenians to go after him and say, hey, give me our money.
No, no, I told Hamza, he said, 40K?
I'll go for 40K to his house.
I said, bro, like, please do your thing.
Leave him alone.
And then we figure out.
So, yeah.
But.
We'll see when we see him.
We talk to him and we figure out maybe we do some different bad.
Yeah, but it's you know, it's always but.
But I have a bad with Aiden Rose Hamzad versus Hamzad versus I put 50k on Hamzad, he put 50k on uh uh Strickland, so and I told him 50-50.
Yeah, I told him he put 50 Strickland against Hamzad.
No, I wanted to put like 1 million.
He said like 100, he said 50.
I said okay, 50.
He against Hamzad, he put 50.
Yeah, it's a tough fight.
You never know.
Well, even even even uh, Hamzad, my friend, he's my brother, but uh, you never know.
It's a fight.
And second, uh, Strickland is tough, tough, a tough fighter, so he has a lot of uh, a lot of good things, you know.
When is it?
When is it in May 9th?
May 9th, yeah.
So, but I told Aiden Rose, brother, fly out with so I uh, fly out with money over there.
Cash and I'm gonna bring cash as well.
Is that GSP sitting next to you?
Yeah, legend, he's like one of the nicest, yeah, legends of all time.
He was with a streamer with me, you know, like GSP.
Like, he was in the zoo with us.
Yeah, he is.
He got in the zoo with us.
And that's not his style.
He's not that guy.
He's a low key guy.
But when he was with us, we were like good, you know, like respectful.
When he was gone and like we started like talking shit.
Yeah, he is truly a class act.
Yeah, he's a class act.
Different level.
Yeah.
Strickland, you know, Strickland is a guy that.
Did you see the clip that one time where a guy came in to try to rob him?
Have you seen that clip?
Yeah, with the gun.
He came out with the gun.
Yeah, and he just, I don't remember what else.
No, he's really like this.
Oh, he cares all day with the gun.
No, he's a tough guy.
He's not a.
Is this it?
He is.
I think he shows up out of nowhere.
I don't know if this is the one or not, but there's a clip where he came outside with a gun.
Yeah, so Strickland is not a guy to be messing around with.
But at the same time, I mean, listen, you know, Kamsat is, you know, I hope it's a good fight.
That's the only thing.
Any of these things that happen, you want to see a good fight.
It's going to be a good fight.
Yeah.
And I'm so excited for that fight.
Yeah.
You're going to be there?
Yeah.
That's going to be, May is going to be where?
Where's that fight at?
New Jersey.
New Jersey.
Okay.
Got it.
New Jersey.
And then June is going to be, are you going to be at the White House?
We'll see.
I got to talk to UC.
How?
Maybe yes, maybe no.
So, if you're not on the card, are you going to go?
I feel you have to be there.
Yeah, I have to be there.
You have to, because right away the camera is going to go right on you.
Yeah, I got to ask UFC and we'll see what they got.
Oh, there is no way in the world you're not going to be there.
Like, it's not going to be them.
It's going to be you choosing to be there.
They have to have you in the arena.
So, we'll see.
They didn't ask me to be there, but I'm going to ask them.
If I'm not going to fight, let me see it on the first round.
To be there because it's my title fight.
It's in my weight class.
If not, I heard they're selling tickets, so I just buy it and go.
Who cares?
You don't need to buy it.
You don't need to buy it.
I think Dana, you know, whoever it is, because here's what's going to happen.
Whatever ends up happening, say 90 10 Toporio wins, and Justin is still a dog.
Like he can make one contact and it's a never know.
I can imagine they're like underestimating that.
Gage and he goes, oh, knock him out.
By the way, every single time he's been in a fight, Every single time he's been in a fight, you're like, wow, you know, maybe the other guy could win it.
Even last one.
And he comes out of it, he's like, how the hell does he do?
He's an insane fighter.
He's an insane fighter who he is.
He has so much experience.
He has so much experience, yeah.
But whatever happens in the results, the camera's going to pan out and it's going to go right here.
Yeah.
That's what's going to happen.
It's going to go right here.
And then.
I'm excited.
Yeah.
I'm excited.
I'm going to try to be there as well.
If you're going to go there and they're fighting, I'm going to try to go there as well myself.
Greatest Meal In World00:02:39
And we went to this last one.
Dana's.
In my opinion, he's the best promoter in the world out of all sports.
Dana is one of a kind, and we're a big fan.
Arman John, this was great.
I really appreciate you coming out.
I'm glad we exchanged messages and we made it work.
I know you had a fight going on, so you did your thing, and now you're here.
And I look forward to the day we celebrate as the first Armenian UFC champion.
Yeah, so when I get the belt, I flew out here and put the belt on this table, and we talk again.
100%.
And then maybe we fly to Armenia together.
And then that's a whole different story.
And we go out there and celebrate how the people are going to be celebrating.
What's your favorite food?
I like.
Armenian.
Armenian?
Dolma?
Dolma Ampaiman, but it's, you know, remember, I'm Parskahai.
Yeah.
So Parskahai for me, we have this stew called Gormesabzi.
I don't know if you've had it or not.
Have you ever gone to Rafi's place?
Yeah, I've been there.
Okay, so if you go to Rafi's place, rice with the stew that they have, Gormesabzi, can you type in Gormesabzi?
How are you going to do that?
You try to spell it.
Okay, do G H O R M E and then go space.
There you go, right there.
And then go to images.
I'm not even kidding you, watching it, I'm getting hungry.
Yeah, yeah.
That is the greatest meal.
If I have a last meal, they come to me, they said, What do you want your last meal to be?
It's this guy right here.
Yeah, I've tried this.
And if the people know how to make it with the rice, yeah, and maybe a little bit of somach, I know that kind of stuff.
So now you gave me an idea what I'm going to do next for my food in the.
Oh, if you know how to make this.
No, no, I just ordered and do food content with this food.
Oh.
Brother, I'm willing to bet anybody that's watching this right now that is Armenian or Parskahai or Iranian, they're going to know about Gormesabzi stew.
This is hands down the greatest meal in the world.
You will age backwards if you eat it from the right person.
It's that good.
Yeah.
Brother, anytime.
Absolutely.
I'll see you in Washington, D.C.
I look forward to it.
If you're telling me you're going, I look forward to it.
I've got to find a way to get out.
I'll call Donna Hunter.
And they're going to let me be there because it's a must.
Because I'm a favorite fighter.
You're their favorite fighter.
That's right.
No issues, nothing, no problems with you.
Oh, good.
Easiest guy to deal with.
Easiest guy to deal with.
Never ever problem with me.
Easiest Opponent Ahead00:01:12
No.
No more maniac anymore.
No more.
No more headlines.
I'm a good guy.
Yes.
Can't imagine me doing something on the White House.
Well, listen, you said spectacle.
But you know, there's a balance to it, right?
On what happened, you gotta know where you do, who you are.
There's snipers at the top, you got drones, you got the president sitting there.
Have you met the president?
Have you uh, I've seen him, but not in person.
You haven't met him, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'm a big fan of Trump, too.
So there you go, you like strong personalities, both Trump, Putin, yes, Trump, Putin.
Take care, everybody.
Bye bye, bye bye.
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