Valuetainment - May 02, 2026


ā€œKnocked Me Out In 20 Secondsā€ - Arman Tsarukyan REVEALS His WILD MMA Origins


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

188.38943

Word count

2,224

Sentence count

129

Harmful content

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Your story, I've heard it from a lot of different people, you know,
00:00:03.400 the story of you used to be a hockey player,
00:00:06.300 and then all of a sudden you got into fighting.
00:00:07.620 So maybe tell me a little bit about your upbringing.
00:00:09.740 Yeah, I was born in Georgia.
00:00:12.740 We moved to Russia for the good life, you know.
00:00:17.180 And then I went to karate.
00:00:18.900 I didn't like, I like karate, but it was too far.
00:00:22.180 And then I started wrestling because it's close to my home.
00:00:25.480 I was starting wrestling, and I could wrestle so good when I was a kid.
00:00:31.140 But my coach always tells me, you've got to cut weight because you've got to be lighter.
00:00:36.020 And I was hitting this sport because of cut weight.
00:00:39.740 But nowadays, if someone asks me as a kid, a kid shouldn't cut weight
00:00:43.720 because it's the worst thing ever for the kid.
00:00:46.840 And I could not eat three or four days as an eight-year-old kid.
00:00:52.340 Can you imagine what's the stress?
00:00:53.700 At eight years old?
00:00:54.340 So you started training very early.
00:00:56.200 Yeah, I started six.
00:00:57.440 I started training six.
00:00:58.860 And from six to nine or ten, I was beating everybody on the wrestling.
00:01:04.160 And when I was ten, I was playing for myself.
00:01:08.720 From six or seven years, I wrestled professionally already,
00:01:12.600 but I played hockey in my backyard with my friends
00:01:16.500 because all my classmates were hockey players.
00:01:20.740 I'm from Habarovsk. 0.99
00:01:22.100 It's like a cold place in Russia.
00:01:24.540 It's like north, north, like the coldest place in Russia. 1.00
00:01:28.180 Not an Armenian community? 1.00
00:01:29.620 No, no, no.
00:01:30.920 Not a lot of Armenian, only Russian people.
00:01:33.260 So they play all day hockey in the wintertime.
00:01:37.660 And my friends were their hockey players.
00:01:39.960 So I was playing with them.
00:01:41.160 And then when I was 9 or 10, one of the coaches see how I'm playing
00:01:45.460 in the backyard hockey.
00:01:47.000 And they said, you got something special.
00:01:49.400 do you want to come and play
00:01:52.580 with professional? I said how
00:01:54.040 they start when they were 5-6
00:01:56.400 you gotta start earlier when you're in
00:01:58.560 hockey and I started 10
00:02:00.460 and
00:02:02.000 even I couldn't pick it up
00:02:04.440 until 17 so I was playing professional
00:02:06.580 from 10 to 17 hockey
00:02:08.220 You were playing professional hockey from 10 to 17?
00:02:10.200 Yeah I wanted to go NHL
00:02:11.660 so my dad even was saying like
00:02:13.860 whatever you want I send you Canada
00:02:16.560 USA just if you want
00:02:18.500 to play in the NHL, so you
00:02:20.580 gotta go there. I said
00:02:21.560 I'd like to be here, but I was
00:02:24.620 a kid. I didn't know what I should do, so
00:02:26.240 if I was smart,
00:02:28.460 I should tell to my dad to send me to
00:02:30.380 the U.S. or to Canada
00:02:32.520 to play here. Were you that good that you
00:02:34.540 think you could have made it in the NHL?
00:02:37.480 I was good.
00:02:38.480 I was good, and
00:02:39.520 my goal was hockey, and then
00:02:42.140 when I was 17, I understood
00:02:44.360 I cannot be a good hockey player,
00:02:47.040 and
00:02:47.280 And they said, okay, it's done.
00:02:50.360 I'm going to work with my dad.
00:02:52.620 And I was working three months with my dad and said, no, this is not my thing.
00:02:57.440 I like to be in the sport because it's easier for me.
00:03:00.300 You wake up, you know, your time, you train one or two times a day.
00:03:03.720 You chill all day.
00:03:05.060 You're, like, clean, you know, eat clean food.
00:03:07.800 But when you're in construction business, you wake up at 6, you don't have a schedule.
00:03:13.060 you just drive everywhere like talk to people like help your dad you know they don't care about
00:03:18.640 their body they just work all day and like it's a it's not the best job and I said no I want to go
00:03:26.480 back to sport and I said my dad can I go to grappling school and he said yeah do it and
00:03:32.360 I went to grappling and I could do so good because I trained when I was from six to nine
00:03:37.800 wrestling and like i could pick it up so fast and grappling was just starting in russia so from nine
00:03:44.180 to 17 you didn't do any grappling or nothing nothing so only six to nine wrestle then nine
00:03:48.800 to 17 hockey and then you come back to grappling in eight yeah so in one year i i was a russian
00:03:54.260 champion so yeah it was like everybody was surprised how i made it and like and grappling
00:04:00.900 for me was boring and i i see like someone is fighting and i said okay i got i asked my dad
00:04:06.640 Can I do one fight in MMA? 1.00
00:04:08.280 He said, you're stupid. 1.00
00:04:09.280 They're going to break your head. 1.00
00:04:11.000 Why you need that?
00:04:11.980 I said, just one fight.
00:04:13.640 I like when people go to the cage, you know, with music.
00:04:18.520 And I watched once when I was, like, 17.
00:04:21.920 And I said, I want to do this once in my life.
00:04:24.480 Who'd you watch?
00:04:25.020 What fight did you watch at 17?
00:04:26.440 It's a Dagestani guy.
00:04:28.000 He was walking to the cage with good music.
00:04:33.460 You know, I said, it made me so excited.
00:04:36.380 and I said, I want to do this in my life.
00:04:38.580 Just because the walkout?
00:04:39.760 Yeah, walkout.
00:04:40.740 Yeah, I don't know why the walkout
00:04:42.240 and people crowd watch you and I don't know.
00:04:45.540 I like it so much and I said, my dad, can I do once?
00:04:49.620 And he said, just once.
00:04:50.960 And my mom was crying all day.
00:04:52.580 Don't do that because someone's going to break your head 1.00
00:04:55.820 so you're going to be stupid all your life. 1.00
00:04:57.720 Now, have you been a fighter? 1.00
00:04:58.880 Were you a fighter or mainly wrestling?
00:05:00.460 Would you get into a lot of fistfights or no?
00:05:02.600 No, no, no.
00:05:03.220 I didn't have experience.
00:05:04.100 I was like a grappler, and then I wanted to transition to MMA just for one fight.
00:05:11.720 So, and thank God I won my first one, and then they offered me right away.
00:05:17.640 The second one was the guy who has 11 or 10 fights, professional.
00:05:22.500 And I didn't have a coach who said, no, don't do that.
00:05:26.020 I had, like, I have, like, a strong heart.
00:05:30.620 You know, I don't care who I'm going to fight.
00:05:32.800 I said if he wants to fight me I'll go because I'm I was young no experience nobody tell me you
00:05:38.420 shouldn't do that you gotta box first get experience and then you you can go to fight
00:05:45.320 like this but I said okay I don't care like I just go and take and wrestle him and I went there in
00:05:51.300 15 or 20 seconds he knocked me out my dad said what are you doing like I told you don't go there
00:05:57.380 It's not your thing.
00:05:59.080 And I was so mad.
00:06:00.640 And I said, okay, give me one year.
00:06:04.220 And can you send me to Thailand?
00:06:08.180 So I flew to Thailand.
00:06:09.900 I stayed there one year.
00:06:11.100 And I came back, beat him, this guy that he knocked me out.
00:06:15.140 What did you do in Thailand for one year?
00:06:16.680 I was training.
00:06:17.660 I was coming back for competition to Russia and then back to Thailand.
00:06:23.460 How intense was the training in Thailand?
00:06:25.280 It was hard.
00:06:25.840 It was hard.
00:06:26.600 So hard.
00:06:27.380 I didn't know how to train.
00:06:28.600 I was training all day.
00:06:29.560 I felt like a professional fighter.
00:06:31.860 They go to the gym in the morning and then come in the evening back.
00:06:36.020 So I was in the gym all day.
00:06:37.420 I didn't know, like, I got to go there, do one training,
00:06:41.880 and then rest, and then evening.
00:06:44.020 I went there from 9 to 11.
00:06:46.440 It was jiu-jitsu.
00:06:48.000 From 12 to 2, it was MMA.
00:06:50.940 And then from 5 to 6, it was sparring,
00:06:53.320 and I was doing, like, all that trainings.
00:06:56.420 Every day?
00:06:56.900 Every day, yeah. Only Sunday day off.
00:07:01.600 Who told you about that place?
00:07:03.900 I was watching on YouTube. I didn't know even where that place.
00:07:08.280 I just know it was in the island Phuket.
00:07:11.320 And I landed there. I was asking everybody, where's Tiger Muay Thai?
00:07:14.720 And nobody knew that.
00:07:17.480 And then one of the taxi driver, he drove me there.
00:07:22.600 It was like 30 minutes from the airport.
00:07:24.540 Did you go by yourself or did you go with a group?
00:07:26.080 No, alone, alone.
00:07:26.940 I was there alone, alone.
00:07:28.520 By yourself, you're saying you're going to Thailand
00:07:29.940 based on a video you saw on YouTube.
00:07:31.540 Yeah, nobody, nobody, yeah.
00:07:34.300 Yeah.
00:07:34.820 So you're training there, and then you're,
00:07:37.140 now at the same time, are you coming back and forth to Russia or no?
00:07:40.040 Yeah, I was going back to Russia, beat somebody, and then come back.
00:07:43.300 And then in one year, exactly the same day,
00:07:45.320 I beat the guy who knocked me out.
00:07:47.620 I chocked him out.
00:07:48.580 And then my dad said, okay, you beat him, that's it.
00:07:51.960 But I was winning for one year, five fights.
00:07:55.440 I was a Russian champion MMA master of sport of MMA and like I asked the one guy I want to retire
00:08:04.640 because my dad doesn't I was 19 and he said you shouldn't do that you have like a good potential
00:08:10.500 like you can be in UFC and don't do that I said what is UFC what are you talking about I'm just
00:08:17.260 fighting yeah and then I flew to Korea I beat the guy in Korea and then one of my managers said
00:08:24.440 like keep doing because you're seven and one uh you can be like a good mma fire and you can you
00:08:31.520 can be in ufc so and then i will and then i want to start beating everybody and i was like
00:08:37.360 30 30 win streak 30 win streak and they sent me to in ufc for two weeks before so at what point
00:08:45.320 did dana know who you were do you have an idea when the ufc found out who this kid is armand
00:08:50.780 that's beating everybody up yeah because the they signed me before it was the second event in
00:09:01.600 Russia you see you've seen Russia and they were looking for someone from there so and they got
00:09:08.900 me there and they it was short notice before two weeks they they told me before fight but still
00:09:14.380 you know I said I gotta take this chance because you never know what's what gonna be tomorrow
00:09:19.380 or maybe they're never going to call me again. 0.83
00:09:22.080 And is this an Islam fight? 0.97
00:09:23.380 Yeah, it's an Islam fight. 0.94
00:09:24.120 I went there, and my manager said, it's Islam. 1.00
00:09:26.760 I said, I don't care who is Islam and who is Habib. 0.99
00:09:29.460 I don't care.
00:09:30.660 I want to be in UFC.
00:09:32.960 I knew they give you a contract not for one fight.
00:09:35.820 They give you a contract for four fights.
00:09:37.880 So if you go there, perform very well.
00:09:40.140 And I knew I could beat him.
00:09:41.700 I don't know why.
00:09:42.780 In my mind, I was so confident.
00:09:46.240 Is that you or someone's telling you this?
00:09:48.220 No, just me.
00:09:49.240 You.
00:09:49.540 The confidence is you.
00:09:50.860 Yeah, just me.
00:09:51.580 Where did the confidence come from?
00:09:54.260 I think from my blood, I don't know,
00:09:55.980 because where I was born, hard lifestyle, you know,
00:10:00.960 my parents, they came from nothing, probably from that,
00:10:06.340 that you've got to take risks and do what you've got to do, you know.
00:10:13.360 Your dad seems like an interesting guy.
00:10:14.920 Is he very tough?
00:10:15.920 Is he a tough guy?
00:10:18.160 he's he's tough he can work 24 7 and never complain and uh when i was growing up i was
00:10:26.120 watching what he's doing you know and like he he he never buys for himself nothing he just
00:10:32.380 think about us for our for our future and uh for example if you ask him like i want to buy this
00:10:39.440 car or this yeah he's saying buy it but for him he never gonna buy for him like a car or simple
00:10:45.540 guy yeah i mean when he was like 40 something i said like that why you you don't want to buy a car
00:10:52.000 he said my time is left when i wanted to to have a cars when i was 25 23 24 uh that moment moment i
00:11:00.780 didn't have money but now i don't i don't need that but i want you to enjoy it because i didn't
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