Arman Tsarukyan has built a massive online following showing off a lifestyle most UFC champions couldn’t afford, let alone a contender still chasing his first title shot. To his bitter rival Paddy Pimblett, all of it means nothing.
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During a recent appearance on the Green Light with Chris Long podcast, Pimblett tore into Tsarukyan for what he sees as an entitled lifestyle funded entirely by his millionaire father rather than anything the Armenian earned himself.
“Arman Tsarukyan, I have no respect for at all,” Pimblett said on the podcast. “He’s just a rich kid. He’s like, ‘Daddy’s a millionaire.’ Arman is a good fighter, to be honest, but I just can’t respect him because he is living on Daddy’s money, and without that, he wouldn’t be where he is. He’s sitting there eating $2,000 caviar for breakfast.”
This isn’t a new angle for Pimblett. He has hit Tsarukyan with versions of this same criticism repeatedly, going back over a year, and it’s where the nickname “Little Poshboy” came from in the first place. The underlying accusation has stayed consistent throughout: that Tsarukyan never had to work for anything he has.
Pimblett isn’t the only one who’s gone there. Lightweight contender Dan Hooker took a similar shot ahead of their UFC Qatar main event last November, calling Tsarukyan a “mouthy little rich p—k” and pointing out how differently the two of them grew up. Tsarukyan won that fight by submission anyway.
“People jealous, you know, that I have money,” Arman Tsarukyan told Ariel Helwani last year. “I don’t have too much money, but I can live, I can do whatever I want in this life. I can buy whatever I want, but I cannot buy a private jet. I cannot buy a private yacht.”
Arman’s father, Nairi Tsarukyan, is a business figure based in Russia with a background in construction and real estate. It’s unclear exactly how much he’s worth, though some reports have pegged it as high as $100 million. Whatever the real number is, it’s clearly enough to explain the lifestyle, even as Tsarukyan continues building a genuinely elite career in the cage on his own. He’s currently 10-2 in the UFC, with his last loss coming against Mateusz Gamrot back in 2022, and has won five straight fights since, most recently a submission finish of Hooker himself.
Currently, the Armenian holds a very impressive 10-2 record in the UFC. His last loss came against Mateusz Gamrot in a 2022 Fight Night event, and since then, he has won five fights in a row. The UFC recently announced Arman Tsarukyan’s next fight against Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331 co-main event in California, which could be a ticket to face lightweight champion Justin Gaethje next.
With Pimblett bringing up Tsarukyan’s father again, and doing it as publicly as ever, the rivalry has only gotten more personal. Whether it ever ends up settled in the cage is still an open question. For now, Tsarukyan’s more immediate task is making a statement against Ruffy next month, the kind of result that would make it a lot harder for Pimblett’s jabs to land.
