Arman Tsarukyan believes he needs to knockout Beneil Dariush to earn a title shot: “I’ve got to finish”

Arman Tsarukyan believes he will need to pull out something special to earn a title shot when he takes on Beneil Dariush at UFC Fight Night Austin on December 2nd.

The Armenian sits at #8 in the lightweight rankings while Dariush is sitting at #4.

“They (the fans) gotta expect the best performance from Arman Tsarukyan,” said the 27-year-old in an interview with Middleeasy.

“The best KO. Definitely it’s going to be a finish. If I wanna fight for the title I gotta finish. If I’m going to win barely, people are going to talk ‘oh Oliveira knocked him out, you just barely win him, what are you talking about?’ So I’ve gotta perform very well and knock him out,” he continued, before adding,

“To be honest I like a lot Dariush. I like the fighter, I like the guy, so I’ve got to give him respect.”

Tsarukyan is right in thinking he needs a statement to get a crack at the gold, as there are other more prominent contenders ahead of him in the pecking order. The likes of Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and former champion Charles Oliveira appear to be front runners as it stands. Mateusz Gamrot also sits at #6 and secured a win over Tsarukyan when the pair fought last year.

The Krasnodar-native has gone on to record back-to-back wins since then and took important lessons from the loss.

“Before Gamrot, I had never fought five rounds,” explained Tsarukyan. “Now I have that experience. Now I know how to control my gas. Beneil never had a five-round fight so that’s good. I already have that…hopefully it’s not going to be five rounds (though,) I want to finish him early,” he continued.

(via Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Dariush saw an impressive 8-fight winning streak snapped on his last outing when he was knocked out by ‘Do Bronx’ at UFC 289. The 34-year-old describes the loss as a ‘bad night at the office.’

“That day Oliveira was better, so it doesn’t matter how Dariush felt, how was his shape. We gotta say Oliveira was better that day. We don’t know if they fought again who’s going to win, but sh** happens,” said Tsarukyan in response to his opponent’s take on his loss to the Brazilian.

Either way, this clash is of great importance to the upper echelons of the 155 lb division.

Who wins it?