Arman Tsarukyan Reveals How Close He Was to Grappling Tom Hardy: “I’m down for everybody”

A grappling contest between Arman Tsarukyan and Tom Hardy was loosely discussed with the former touching on just how close that got to transpiring. The surging UFC lightweight contender discussed this recently with Helen Yee Sports around the time of his recent effort with Real American Freestyle as Tsarukyan bested Lance Palmer via tech fall at RAF 05 with a score of 10-0.

Tsaruykan has been active on the submission grappling circuit as of late and has also grappled under the Hype Fighting banner against the likes of UFC middleweight Shara Bullet. An offer was extended to Hardy to grapple Tsarukyan under the Hype banner last December but complications related to the Hollywood star’s schedule got in the way. Expressing his side of why this intriguing showdown with Hardy never took place, Tsarukyan said,

“Yeah, I got that offer, but he [Tom Hardy] couldn’t come because he was filming something. I don’t know, he’s filming, he’s busy. So it didn’t happen, but maybe in the future – why not? I’m down for everybody, for big names.”

Arman Tsarukyan calls out former UFC title challenger for wrestling contest

Arman Tsarukyan has been actively plying his trade as a wrestler and seems to want to keep his momentum lately going against another UFC contracted fighter who concurrently competes for RAF. This referenced competitor is Michael Chandler who Tsarukyan recently put in his crosshairs after his aforementioned win against Palmer from over the weekend.

Tsarukyan mentioned Chandler making some RAF callouts and mentioned his keenness to wrestle the former multi-time Bellator MMA champion. Arman Tsarukyan also mentioned Chandler’s wrestling specific pedigree while the former referenced his base as being that of an MMA fighter who happens to pursue a lot of grappling-centric opportunities.

Punctuating the callout, Tsarukyan mentioned that Chandler would have zero chance against him in MMA so maybe a contest under the RAF banner could be a better fit for Chandler per Tsarukyan’s trash talking. Putting some more potential options out there, Tsarukyan stated [viaMMA Junkie],

I would like to wrestle with Kyle Dake, as well. It’s good for me because he’s world champion, [bronze] Olympic [medalist]. He’s a real name. Next one I would like to have an MMA fighter, who has a background in wrestling, get more experience, and then wrestle with the real wrestlers because we’re still not on the same level. You can’t compare an MMA fighter to a freestyle wrestler.”