UFC Vegas 75 video: Arman Tsarukyan survives scary moment to brutally finish Joaquim Silva in third round

Arman Tsarukyan entered Saturday’s UFC event as more than a -1000 favorite to defeat Joaquim Silva in the lightweight co-main event.

In the end, he got the job done — but not without a bit of drama.

Tsarukyan picked up his 20th pro win at UFC Vegas 75 with a third-round TKO victory over an incredibly game opponent. After a one-sided opening stanza for Tsarukyan using his incredible grappling, he decided to keep things on the feet in Round 2 and almost paid for it as Silva wobbled him with a big shot. Tsarukyan was able to recover and land a takedown, finishing out the round with some momentum.

In the third, Tsarukyan was on a mission to get Silva out of there, and after a hard slam that dropped Silva on his head, the top-10 lightweight landed vicious ground-and-pound before referee Keith Petersen finally stepped in to call the fight.

Watch the video of the closing moments below.

The 26-year-old phenom is now 7-2 inside the octagon, including giving current 155-pound champion Islam Makhachev everything he could handle in Tsarukyan’s octagon debut decision loss at UFC on ESPN+ 7 in April 2019, as well as a heavily debated split decision loss to Mateusz Gamrot in his first UFC main event at UFC Vegas 57 in June 2022.

Following the win, Tsarukyan sent a message to Makhachev for a future rematch. When Paul Felder asked what he wanted next, he mentioned Beneil Dariush, but Tsarukyan said Dariush may not be ready until December, which would be too late for him. He then turned his attention to Michael Chandler, saying that if the fight with Conor McGregor doesn’t come together, Tsarukyan predicts he will “kill him” if they were to meet.