Arman Tsarukyan admits he was slightly taken aback by the massive fan base for his upcoming opponent,
Charles Oliveira.
Tsarukyan is ready for the biggest matchup of his career against the former champ at
UFC 300 on Saturday in what is essentially a lightweight title eliminator. Leading up to the matchup, the Armenian-Russian’s comments sections on social media have been flooded with the iconic phrase coined by Oliveira, "The champ has a name."
“I didn’t know that [he has a lot of fans]… And he has a lot of fans so like everybody text me on the comments, ‘The champion has name:
Charles Oliveira.’ And send a lot of messages with the Brazilian flag but it’s funny … ,” Tsarukyan told
ESPN
Oliveira fans took it to a different level during a UFC 300 Q&A in Miami last month by issuing death threats to Tsarukyan’s face while booing him. “Ahalkalakets” admits being surprised by the incident but expects a different atmosphere at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I was surprised because I didn’t think like a lot of people gonna boo me, you know,’ he said. “Maybe because [Alex] Pereira was there, his fans and Oliveira’s fans it’s almost same guys, that’s why. And yeah it [the presser] was in LA, like a lot of Armenian, Russian people can come [to Vegas] and I think it’s gonna be completely different.”
Tsarukyan also recently implied that “do Bronx” is only good at one thing: taking people’s backs and choking them. However, the surging lightweight has now slightly changed course after studying Oliveira’s extensive career in detail.