UFC veterans Khamzat Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan both have fantastic grappling for MMA fighters and they recently had a match against one another. Although both men are highly skilled on the ground, there’s a fair amount of size difference between them. Chimaev has historically floated between welterweight and middleweight during his UFC career, while Tsarukyan has spent almost his entire career at lightweight. That means there’s got to be somewhere between 20-30 lbs or more between them when neither man is cutting weight. That kind of size difference would be devastating in an MMA fight of course, but absolute divisions are pretty common in grappling matches.
Both Chimaev and Tsarukyan have backgrounds in wrestling as well, so they approach grappling from a pretty similar perspective. Obviously both men have focused on developing their grappling within the context of an MMA fight over the past few years, but they have each been active in grappling on it’s own as well. Tsarukyan has entered low-stakes BJJ tournaments in the past and although he’s found success there, the level of competition is obviously much lower. Chimaev on the other hand enjoyed a famously dominant performance in a wrestling match with fellow UFC veteran Jack Hermansson a few years ago.
The friendly grappling match between Khamzat Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan took place during an episode of Hype Reality 3, a program billed as the Russian equivalent of The Ultimate Fighter. Chimaev was very confident that he would end up winning the match right from the start, and that confidence proved to be well-placed. The size advantage obviously played a part but Chimaev didn’t just bully Tsarukyan around, he also used technique to come out on top. This isn’t the first time that Chimaev has come up against a UFC veteran in a fun grappling match on a reality show either, as he also faced Luke Rockhold just a few months ago.
The full footage of Khamzat Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan in a grappling match with one another was shared to the official Twitter account of MMA Pros Pick:
🚨Full video of Khamzat Chimaev and Arman Tsarukyan grappling 🤼♂️
Arman: "I will try to defend myself, and avoid getting choked because it's just submission only. Khamzat is huge, it's hard to take him down."
Khamzat: "Arman wieghs less than me. In wrestling Arman himself knows… pic.twitter.com/OXHmC3kCQZ
— MMA.PROS.PICK (@MMAPROSPICK) November 30, 2024
