“It’s gonna show who is No. 1 contender,” he added. “He’s on a winning streak, he beat [Mateusz] Gamrot last fight, and he has a pretty good name; everybody knows him. He had good fights and for me, it’s good to do a warm-up before the big show.”
As much as Saturday’s main event is a chance for fight fans to watch Tsarukyan compete for the first time in nearly 600 days — 589 to be exact — returning to the fray is also exciting to the top-ranked contender.
Though he was slowed a little at the start of the year following the injury that forced him out of his championship opportunity at UFC 311, Tsarukyan has ostensibly been in camp, training, preparing, developing for the last 19 months — an unheard of amount of time for a top-tier talent to be able to focus on improving and sharpening their weapons, rather than strictly remaining in shape and readying for the next assignment.
WATCH FULL FIGHTS: Tsarukyan vs Oliveira | Hooker vs Gamrot | Muhammad vs Brady | Machado Garry vs Prates
“I feel my body is getting better every day and I learned some new techniques,” Tsarukyan said of the extended amount of time he’s been able to train and improve between appearances. “I’m not in my prime yet because every camp, I’m getting better.
“This fight is gonna show my level and I’m so excited. I can’t wait to show everybody and to see where my level is right now. I fought one year and a half [ago] and I want to see where my level is because I got better.
“Hard work always pays off — I believe that and that’s why I train every day,” he added. “I sacrifice, I try to be professional everywhere in the training, in life, and I feel like if you wanna be a champion, you’ve gotta believe in yourself, that you’re the best in this game.
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