Justin Gaethje somehow managed to miss the biggest moment of Arman Tsarukyan’s UFC 331 fight, and his reason behind it is about as random as it gets. While the Armenian was busy putting Mauricio Ruffy to sleep with a nasty standing elbow in the first round of their fight last Saturday, the UFC lightweight champion, who was in the Crypto.com Arena at the time, wasn’t away grabbing food backstage or on a pee break. Nope. He was on the phone with President Donald Trump instead.

‘The Highlight’ was actually watching the action, but the second the opening bell rang, his phone started buzzing. And when Justin Gaethje looked down, there was one name he probably wasn’t expecting to see calling him.

“It was kind of crazy,” Gaethje said during a recent interview on One Night With Steiny. “So as soon as the bell rang, my phone rang. I looked down, and it’s Donald Trump calling me.

“So I answered the phone and we talked for like four minutes. So I missed the entire first round, and then I look up and I’m like, ‘How did his eye get f—— up?’ And then [Ruffy] got knocked out.”

It turns out the conversation had nothing to do with MMA. According to Justin Gaethje, Trump was with two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, and the two ended up talking about golf.

“He was with Bryson DeChambeau. We were talking about golf,” he added. “He called me. He said, ‘Justin, I just saw you on TV. You looked tougher than everybody.'”

While Gaethje might’ve missed it, it was indeed a big night for Arman Tsarukyan. The Armenian had finally returned after a lengthy layoff, with his last bout being at UFC Qatar last year. Add to that, Tsarukyan was stepping into the Octagon against a dangerous Brazilian prospect.

Mauricio Ruffy looked like he was ready to make Arman Tsarukyan regret the long 10-month layoff since November 2025. The Brazilian came out swinging and caught the 29-year-old during one of the first exchanges. The Armenian appeared to momentarily hit the canvas while trying to change levels for a takedown, immediately giving Ruffy something to build on.

Tsarukyan eventually got his grappling going, but Ruffy wasn’t having it. He stuffed the takedown and started finding the target with some clean shots, even opening up noticeable damage around Tsarukyan’s right eye.

For a moment, it looked like the 30-year-old had completely stolen the momentum. Then the Armenian flipped the script in a heartbeat. The two started trading bombs as the opening round wound down, and Tsarukyan found the perfect opening.

He cracked Mauricio Ruffy with a vicious standing elbow that instantly shut his lights out, bringing the fight to a sudden and brutal end. The knockout was so sudden that even Alexander Volkanovski looked like he needed a second to process what he had just seen.

‘The Great’ was in Ruffy’s corner alongside former UFC contender Brad Riddell, and the UFC featherweight champion looked completely stunned as his teammate crumpled from Arman Tsarukyan’s standing elbow. And while all of that chaos was unfolding inside the Octagon, Justin Gaethje was completely elsewhere: on the phone with Trump.

After all, Justin Gaethje has built quite the connection with the president over the last few months. In June 2026, the lightweight champion defeated Ilia Topuria on the White House South Lawn at UFC Freedom 250.

After scoring the fourth-round stoppage, ‘The Highlight’ shook hands with Donald Trump before later heading back to the Oval Office with his family to celebrate. The POTUS has since praised Gaethje’s underdog win, while the UFC champion has also repeatedly credited the president for supporting the promotion during some of its toughest years in the 1990s.

Still, nothing quite beats the timing of their latest conversation. After all, ‘The Highlight’ himself believes Arman Tsarukyan could be his next lightweight title challenger.

Justin Gaethje desires Conor McGregor fight despite lauding Arman Tsarukyan as a deserving contender

Arman Tsarukyan did pretty much everything he could at UFC 331 to make his case for the next lightweight title shot. He steamrolled Mauricio Ruffy, picked up a brutal first-round TKO, and immediately put himself back in the title picture. Even Justin Gaethje has admitted that the Armenian deserves to be in the conversation.

But there’s one problem. ‘The Highlight’ still has another name on his wishlist: Conor McGregor. The lightweight division already has a few possible directions for Gaethje’s first title defense. A rematch with Ilia Topuria has been floated, while Tsarukyan’s statement win over Ruffy has given him a strong argument for the next shot.

Gaethje, though, has made it clear that he has a different matchup in mind. During his recent appearance on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast, the lightweight champion admitted that Tsarukyan is next in line while making it clear that he still wants the McGregor fight.

“Conor McGregor has one fight left on his contract,” he said. “That’ll be fun… It’s not that I don’t wanna fight Arman. I mean, he is the next in line.

“If and when I defend this championship, that should be who I fight. I just don’t know.”

‘The Highlight,’ though, isn’t exactly sitting around trying to figure out who he’ll fight next. The lightweight champion is still dealing with injuries from his fight against Ilia Topuria, so figuring out his next opponent isn’t at the top of his list right now.

Meanwhile, Arman Tsarukyan has no such hesitation. The Armenian made his intentions pretty clear after UFC 331. Following his brutal win over Ruffy, ‘Ahalkalakets’ said the UFC bosses were happy with what they saw and claimed he had already been told that his next fight would be for the lightweight title.

“The bosses are happy with my performance,” he said after the fight. “They told me we’ll talk next week. I had already asked them if they were going to give me the title fight, and they said yes. My next fight will be for the belt.

“I want to fight the champion, Justin Gaethje, and I hope the fight happens early next year.”

That puts Arman Tsarukyan right in the middle of the title picture, but McGregor is still the giant wildcard hanging over everything.

A Gaethje-McGregor fight would obviously bring a ton of attention, and with ‘The Notorious’ having just one fight left on his UFC contract, the matchup could give the former two-division champion a huge name to close out his run with the promotion, if that final fight does end up happening.

For now, though, Justin Gaethje has plenty to think about. Tsarukyan is calling for the title shot. Conor McGregor is still somewhere in the background. And ‘The Highlight’ is stuck on the sidelines recovering from his injuries. So until the champion is healthy and ready to make the call, the lightweight title picture remains wide open.