“If you know wrestling and jiu-jitsu, you know how to defend yourself, it’s a different game,” the Russian said in an interview with Daniel Cormier. “If it was pure jiu-jitsu, without punches and grunge-and-pound, maybe he could have done a sub-match. But when you have punches flying at you, you’re not thinking about getting your arm in for a painkiller. You’re thinking about defending yourself.”
“Choking someone is very difficult, especially if you’re facing a high-level fighter. To choke someone like that, you have to beat him for 15-20 minutes, and then when he gets tired, you can try to choke him out. It’s almost impossible to choke out a high-level fighter in the first two rounds. I believe I can finish the fight in the first round, and I want to show that I’m the best here. My goal is to come out, knock him out in the first round and show everyone that I deserve a title fight.”
“Akhalkalakets” also commented on the statement of the current champion, Islam Makhachev, who said that he is going to make his next defense in June against American Justin Gaethje, moving the fight with the winner of the Oliveira-Tsarukyan pair to November.
“I think he should wait for the result of our fight because it’s a fight for the number one contender title. I hope they don’t schedule his fight with Gaethje for the summer and wait for us. When I win, I’ll fight Islam and then we can talk about Gaethje. I feel like I should be next and Gaethje will have to wait until October. I’m going to fight for the title this summer.”
As a reminder, the bout between Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan will be part of the UFC 300 anniversary event, which will take place on April 13 in Las Vegas.