UFC Results: Beneil Dariush vs. Arman Tsarukyan ,Tsarukyan knocked out Dariush in career-best win

On the heels of the University of Texas Longhorns football team posting a dominant performance on the gridiron on Saturday afternoon, the action shifted inside the Moody Center on the school’s campus for an incredible night of action inside the Octagon.

Headlined by a critical battle in the lightweight division and featuring competitive fights and intriguing names to track throughout the card, things kicked off with a competitive, gritty clash and never really slowed until the final horn sounded.

It's the biggest win of Tsarukyan's career and improves his record in the UFC to 8-2. His only losses came against current champion Islam Makhachev in 2019 and a somewhat controversial decision loss to Mateusz Gamrot in 2022. Saturday was the fastest finish of Tsarukyan's UFC appearances.

"I wanted to perform well, knock him out, go home and get my title fight," Tsarukyan said. "I do want to say thank you so much to Beneil. He is the most respected fighter in our division for me. Nobody wanted to fight me. Just one guy wanted to fight and it was Beneil Dariush. Because of him, I'm a top five fighter, and hopefully my next fight will be for the title. If not, it doesn't matter. I will fight the next one. I'm going to be a champion."

Also on the stacked card, former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo made his bantamweight debut against veteran Rob Font and showed he's just as powerful at 135 as he was at 125. Figueiredo put the division on notice with a dominant outing versus Font and won 30-27 on all three judges' scorecards.

Former women's bantamweight champion Miesha Tate returned to her vintage form to dominate Julia Avila at 135 pounds. After a long hiatus, Tate made her comeback to the UFC at flyweight, but looked incredible back at bantamweight in the fight against Avila.

Quietly, Tsarukyan is asserting himself as one of the most dominant lightweights in the division. He has struggled to attract big name opponents such as Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje or Michael Chandler, but his wins over lesser-known fighters such as Damir Ismagulov, Joel Alvarez and Olivier Aubin-Mercier have demonstrated his enormous potential.

Dariush, 34, suffers his second consecutive defeat after previously winning eight in a row. He was one win away from securing a title shot in June, but suffered a first-round TKO loss to former champion Charles Oliveira.

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Sarah H

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