Arman Tsarukyan stole the show at Real American Freestyle 6, though not in the way the promotion would have liked him to.
Saturday’s RAF 6 co-main event in Tempe, Ariz., ended in chaos when Tsarukyan attacked opponent Georgio Poullas following their wrestling match. As the final buzzer sounded, an aggravated Tsarukyan rushed Poullas, knocking him over and landing punches on the ground before a full-on brawl broke out involving multiple people around the mats.
Tsarukyan, a top UFC lightweight contender, has earned a reputation for getting into physical altercations outside of the octagon, and he’s not the only RAF personality known for stirring up trouble. RAF chief media officer Eric Bischoff became a legend in the sports entertainment world as the brains behind the peak and fall of professional wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling, and he admitted the brawl hit close to home for himself and combat sports fans.
“First of all, I’ve already been accused on social media for actually creating that scene, because it looks so much like professional wrestling,” Bischoff said at the RAF 6 post-fight presser. “But anybody that knows me and has ever worked with me knows that I would never have let it go that long. It was just too long.
“Joking aside, I was disappointed, because there’s so much other great stuff about Real American Freestyle. I’m really proud of the entire team that worked pretty quick and pretty hard to put together a great package for Nate Carr and to surprise Nate and have David come out and put the Real American Legends championship belt on him, I thought that was such a cool moment and that’s what I was looking forward to were those kinds of cool moments.”
Saturday’s event was headlined by a legends matchup between the recently retired Henry Cejudo and UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber, and after Cejudo made easy work of Faber, an announcement was made that Cejudo would next face past UFC foe Merab Dvalishvili on April 18.
Still, Tsarukyan’s antics overshadowed the news, which Bischoff sees as both a positive and a negative.
“What happened tonight, yeah, it’s going to create controversy and the right kind of controversy managed properly can create cash, but it can also create backlash, too,” Bischoff said. “So like Chad said, we’re just going to look through the tape, make a decision, and deal with it.”
RAF CEO Chad Bronstein chimed in, reiterating his desire to have his promotion be recognized as more broadly appealing than some other fight organizations.
“I think it’s important on that point is that we pride ourselves on being a family-friendly combat sport,” Bronstein said. “Obviously, we don’t go out and try to have these kinds of situations happen. We’re on six events, not even a blip, so it’s going to happen, unfortunately, but like Eric said, we’ve got to figure out how to make sure it doesn’t.”
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