Tsarukyan and Georgio Poullas are going to run it back — under
a slightly different rule set.
Hype FC announced on Tuesday that Tsarukyan and Poullas will meet
in a submission-only grappling match on March 11 at Farmasi Arena
in Rio de Janeiro. The match will be contested over 10 minutes.
Tsarukyan had already been confirmed for the event but was awaiting
an opponent. The card will also see Jorge
Masvidal face Sharabutdin
Magomedov in another grappling match, while UFC featherweight
Jean
Silva is also expected to compete on the card.
Capitalizing on the Heat
Tsarukyan and Poullas initialy squared off in a chippy wrestling
match at Real American Freestyle 6 this past Saturday in Tempe,
Arizona. While Tsarukyan emerged victorious, the real drama began
after the conclusion of the match, when the UFC lightweight tackled
his foe to the mat and threw a punch. That led to a full-scale
melee in the arena, as Tsarukyan and Poullas were seperated during
the fracas.
Tsarukyan is a top lightweight contender who is coming off a
submission victory over Dan Hooker at
UFC Qatar this past November. He fell out of the promotion’s good
graces when he withdrew from a title shot against Islam
Makhachev in January 2025, but he has managed to remain active
in other combat sports endeavors while the UFC kept him
sidelined.
Poullas is a former Division I wrestler at Cleveland State
University, but he has risen to prominence as a social media
presence who offers $1,000 to any person who can take him down.