00:00White trunks for Sorokian.
00:03Do expect this to be wrestling heavy, but we'll see how that goes.
00:06Made a bad prediction on that in our opening pit submission series bout of the night.
00:10Trying to strip to the 2-1-1 quickly as Sorokian.
00:13He's got a big Russian tie here.
00:18This is a fun grip to roll.
00:19Yeah, you can roll through on this really nicely.
00:24No, it doesn't do so, but does pick up the legs.
00:26And we've seen it time and time again, getting out of these pit corners in a grappling context is exceptionally hard.
00:35Sorokian trying to clear the legs here.
00:37Step over to a mount position or find his way to the back.
00:43Man, great head control.
00:45Founcing the push-ups.
00:49Not many of our token holders putting much faith in Zynikov there.
00:5417% of them believing the Russians are going to win.
01:05Sorokian working well on this body lock.
01:08Gets shucked off, though.
01:09And that's good defensive work from Zynikov.
01:12Zynikov.
01:18Sorokian looking to win that inside position.
01:21See, they keep pummeling to get the arms inside, get those collar ties.
01:25Sorokian's looking to lift up on that elbow, though, and either work for a throw-by or back to that 2-on-1.
01:31Digging a big underhook here.
01:32Yeah.
01:33Well, again, it's early.
01:38They're not too slippery yet.
01:41That upper body wrestling can pay dividends early on.
01:44It's a little bit harder as the fight progresses.
01:52Yeah, again, he looked to strip to it.
01:53Good snap down here.
02:02Head and arm control.
02:15Mercy grip.
02:16So unpleasant.
02:17Yes.
02:21Last time he had a budget clutch.
02:24Yeah, and you see over and over Sorokian's grabbing that right tricep with his left hand
02:29and trying to get that C grip and push it into this 2-on-1.
02:32He's got it again.
02:33See if he rolls through.
02:34Oh, tries to throw.
02:35You can throw it off to a single, which is what he's trying to do.
02:38One, two, one.
02:40One, two, one.
02:43One, two, three, two, three, four.
02:46Easy block of the shot there.
02:50Yeah, it's a good defense for Sorokian.
02:56About two minutes left in this opening period.
02:59This is under our typical pitch submission series rule set.
03:02Two five-minute periods with a third if they're drawn.
03:09But this is tiring because they're going for it.
03:12It's not like we saw with the heavyweight.
03:15This is going a little fast.
03:19Yeah, these are the guys who wrestle bears, though.
03:22So, you know...
03:23It's not hyperbole, either.
03:26Diving on the single, not able to pick it up.
03:47Battling these collar ties constantly.
03:49Good snap down.
03:49See how hard it is to get in on the hips here.
04:12That's why they're fighting upper body ties so much.
04:15Hips are so far back.
04:16And again, he's going to look to strip to this two-on-one, this kind of Russian tie.
04:20There he goes.
04:23But that's just going to keep getting progressively harder.
04:26The slipperier it gets.
04:27Yeah, that's the thing.
04:34And especially when we try to take somebody down.
04:36Once they start sweating, it's going to be very hard.
04:40That's when you have to start really looking in on the legs.
04:43And there's the first motion at a full shot from Sarukian.
04:46Well, that's the first five-minute period in the book.
05:03It's probably going to go the way of Sarukian for the one really good sequence he had earlier on.
05:10Take a look back at some of that hand fighting.
05:15It's so attritional right now.
05:24Good attempt at the Uchi Mata.
05:26Of course, Sarukian was able to back him into the corner one time earlier on in this bout.
05:44A few shot attempts from Zynikov.
05:49But on balance, the Armenian definitely getting the better of it.
05:56Now, if I was the ref, I would be looking to towel.
05:59Well, there you go.
06:00The home corner's doing it anyway.
06:01Looking to towel these guys off.
06:04Yeah, I was just looking.
06:05It almost looked like they threw water over them.
06:08I mean, that's how much they shine.
06:14Let's see who can get the take.
06:15They're both trying to strip grips here.
06:32Harassing the head constantly.
06:48Accidental eye poke as well.
06:50Both acknowledge it.
06:52Very genuinely accidental.
06:53Back under way, swiftly.
07:06Now, Sarukian looking like he's thinking about taking a few more risks here.
07:23Again, stripping the grips, trying to get those snap downs.
07:25But you've got to use them once you move your opponent.
07:27There he goes, looking for a sweep single on the outside.
07:29Got to be careful of those open palms on the face.
07:39And they're trying to frame away.
07:40They're trying to frame away.
08:10And they're going to step under there.
08:21And neither man able to really get any purchase on any of these takedowns.
08:30Somebody has got to take a chance here.
08:32It has to.
08:35And here's the thing, though.
08:36This is not one of those instances where you kind of get on the ref, you know, a stalling call, perhaps,
08:42because they are both actually constantly hand-fighting and fainting.
08:46Yeah, it's super tiring.
08:47It's a good chain pull.
08:49It's constant stress on the back, on the belly.
08:52It makes it harder to breathe.
08:54A lot of power.
08:55Yeah, this is where two wrestlers against each other can be a little bit of a stalemate.
09:01But a chance now for Zynikov.
09:03He's on this head and arm series.
09:04And a minute and 40.
09:34left in this one.
09:36This has really been the story of the whole fight so far.
09:39keeper.
09:56Feints from Zynikov.
10:00Again, the 2-on-1 attempt from Siruki in here.
10:03It was so slippery, and that time it was a throw-by from Zynikov who shoots and looks to re-shoot.
10:08And that's the kind of thing they're gonna have to do, they're gonna have to mix up the timing.
10:13Shot, re-shot, sprawl shot.
10:26Just a brutal, brutal wrestling practice for these two right now.
10:30It's gonna be super frustrating also for both of them, look at you.
10:33Yeah, good pick up on the single.
10:35It's the closest we've got to a finishable position for a little while now, and he hits the takedown.
10:41That was beautiful.
10:43Yeah, kind of when Kanabasami entry, you can't quite see it fully, but a nice little scissor work.
10:5420 seconds left.
10:56It's never really a good time when you grab a single and then stop and go static.
11:00Yeah, kind of gonna keep moving.
11:08So many shot feints.
11:10Closing 10 seconds here.
11:14Looks to go on the single one more time, hustles up to the body lock.
11:17Good work to go behind here.
11:19Oh, I wonder if that does it for Sarukyan to win this bout right at the death.
11:29Tricky, tricky one between these two.
11:33One more round, Doris.
11:35Only if it's a draw do we go to one more round.
11:37Oh.
11:39That's obvious.
11:41And you can see just deadlocked head to head, trying to pummel for the underhooks, getting the snap downs.
11:51Sarukyan was constantly looking for that two on one.
11:55Got a couple of good single leg entries.
11:57Here's that kind of Basami takedown slash sweep.
12:00That was nice.
12:01Yeah, just not able to capitalize.
12:03And this was a good shot from Sarukyan all the way to the end.
12:13Just wish he'd had a bit more time to try and use that.
12:15And there is a winner.
12:25Well, it looks like we're going to get a decision here.
12:29Ladies and gentlemen, your winner from the red corner, Arman Sarukyan.
12:55Well, Arman Sarukyan gets it done here in our pit submission series.
13:00The closer of the takedown attempts.
13:05A narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless.
13:07And he gets to go back to his contender status with the UFC.
13:13Been a pleasure having him here in the karate combat pit.
13:20Last look at some of the action from that bout.
13:23Arman, thank you so much for being here.
13:41How does it feel being inside our KC pit?
13:45I feel great. Thank you so much.
13:47You can't support me.
13:49We've got to get you up. We've got to get you up.
13:53Well, all right. Once again, big round of applause for your champ, guys. Well done.
14:10Honored to have you here in Dubai.
14:13We appreciate you being here with us as well at KC once again.
14:16How was the first time in the pit? How did it feel?
14:19It was great. So I haven't fought one year, you know, and that's why I came and wrestle today.
14:25My opponent was a very hard guy. Yeah, nobody know him a lot because he's fighting in Russia.
14:32But he's from a strong team like we know. And it was tough, you know.
14:37And he didn't want to wrestle too much. That's why I like more offense and then wrestle, you know.
14:44And he was trying to escape from me for like 10 minutes, you know.
14:51So I think judges did good work. Thank you so much.
14:55And I'm so excited to wrestle one more time here as soon as possible because this is great experience.
15:02Best crowd. Thank you so much, everybody.
15:06And the organization is so good. I like everything and can't wait for next one.
15:15And I need one more guy from Habib's team. Let's do that again.
15:22You have a huge fan base, not only in Dubai, but across the UAE in the Middle East.
15:27You just made a call out right now. Can we see you back here in the pit at some time?
15:33Yeah, for sure. Wrestling. Yeah, I want to wrestle as soon as possible because, you know, I do it for free in my gym.
15:40I can go here and make money and have fun, you know.
15:43Like my people, my coach can see where I did mistake and improve, get better on my wrestling skills, you know.
15:50And I knew like this fight is going to be like this little bit boring when like two guys, when they know freestyle wrestling,
15:58it's difficult to take down and wrestle. If you bring like a wrestler MMA fighter versus Jiu Jitsu guy,
16:05it's going to be more ground, ground, ground game, you know.
16:08And like, sorry, it was like not too, too good for fans, but I hope you enjoy.
16:14No apologies needed, champ. President Awesome is here with us as well.
16:19The greatness that we had inside the pit tonight, fantastic, right?
16:23No, it's been unbelievable. And I just want to come up here and say a big thank you to Armin.
16:27You know, he has some very, very big fights and just take some time out and grapple over here.
16:32He's always, always welcome. And I also want to give a big thank you to the UFC for always allowing their stars.
16:37Armin, Kyle was here, Aljamain Sterling, all these big names from the UFC coming out here and grapple.
16:44So thank you to them for allowing these amazing athletes to be here.
16:47Well done. Ladies and gentlemen, your champ, give them one more big round of applause to Armin.
16:53Well, Vass, it's a lovely thought, isn't it? The elite MMA guys using this as a training ground for the coaches
17:07to see how they can execute under a bit more pressure than just being in the gym.
17:11But that's it. You know, it's competition. It's just competition.
17:14It makes the MMA game better. It makes everything better because you get used to the pressure.
17:18Once you're completely relaxed, that's when you shine.
17:21Yeah, you know, I agree with...
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