Demetrious
Johnson claims Arman
Tsarukyan put a lesson from their training session together to
good use in his recent bout.

Tsarukyan further bolstered his case for a title shot in the

Ultimate Fighting Championship at UFC
331, knocking out Mauricio
Ruffy with an elbow at 4:56 of the opening round. The technique
he used to deliver the knockout was among the positions he worked
on alongside Johnson when they trained together.

Arman Tsarukyan put Demetrious Johnson’s clinch advice to use
against Mauricio Ruffy

Johnson broke down the finish and highlighted Tsarukyan's decision
to remain aggressive in close range rather than immediately looking
for another takedown when he had Ruffy up against the Octagon
wall.

“Now, instead of just wrestling here, like I said, you don't have
to wrestle here,†Johnson said in a video posted to his YouTube
channel. “Look, he's already here. That's one of the things I
showed him. Usually people want to wrestle here, but I told him,
‘You don't have to wrestle.'â€

The UFC Hall of Famer also backed Tsarukyan for a title shot
against lightweight champ Justin
Gaethje.

“Those are things that he's going to need when he takes on Justin
Gaethje, because Justin can push the pace,†Johnson said. “He can
do a lot of damage. He can wrestle, too. This is the fight that
needs to happen. We don't need to worry about Ilia
Topuria. This man is owed a title shot.â€

ðŸðŸ§  Demetrious
Johnson teaching Arman some clinch work.

Mighty emphasized that Arman needs to move away from a
wrestling-heavy approach to MMA:

“You're holding him, but in MMA, it's better to strip his hand off
you, land a left hook to the body, a right straight to the
head.â€â€¦

— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight)
September 20, 2026

Magomed
Ankalaev is willing to fight Paulo Costa
despite considering it a lose-lose scenario.

Costa is currently amidst a falling-out with the
Ultimate Fighting Championship over the last fight on his
current contract. The Brazilian has repeatedly called out the
promotion online while campaigning for a fight. Former champ
Magomed
Ankalaev has now offered a solution.

Ankalaev offers to serve as Costa's final fight under his
current UFC contract

Costa's latest gripe with the UFC involved being offered a
short-notice five-round fight for no additional pay. While Costa is
willing to accept a five-round fight, he wants to be compensated
accordingly and have ample time to prepare for a 25-minute bout.
Furthermore, he's taken shots at UFC exec Hunter Campbell and asked
for his release multiple times.

Ankalaev has offered to be the last fight on Costa's current
contract. The former light heavyweight champ believes Costa has
nothing to lose, as his stock will skyrocket with a win as he
enters free agency. Ankalaev believes he doesn't have much to gain
from the matchup, as he'll likely be the favorite, but is still
open to fighting “Borrachinha.â€

“You beat me, you become a free agent and make millions,†Ankalaev
wrote on X. “I beat you, everybody expected me to beat you anyway.
You have nothing to lose. I'm your get-out-of-jail-free card. Let's
fight.â€

Costa is coming off back-to-back finishes, while Ankalaev returned
to winning ways against Bogdan
Guskov after losing the title in his rematch with Alex
Pereira.

You beat me, you become a free agent and
make millions. I beat you, everybody expected me to beat you
anyway. You have nothing to lose. I'm your get-out-of-jail-free
card. Let's fight.

— Muhammad big ANK Ankalaev (@AnkalaevM)
September 21, 2026

LOS ANGELES – Merab Dvalishili knows what went wrong the second time he crossed paths with Petr Yan.