Ryan Garcia refuses to pay Arman Tsarukyan

Ryan Garcia has no plans to send Arman Tsarukyan the $40,000, and he is not trying to sound polite about it.

The boxing star has pushed back again on the body shot bet that turned into one of the stranger crossover stories around a UFC contender this spring. Tsarukyan says Garcia lost the bet during a Kick livestream and never paid. Garcia says the whole setup was unfair from the start, and his answer now is simple: he does not believe he owes the money.

Garcia said, “There’s no way I will ever pay him.” That line keeps the argument alive because Tsarukyan is not just some random name from a viral clip. He is one of the top lightweights in the UFC, a fighter still sitting close to the title picture, and someone who does not usually need help making noise online.

The dispute started with a body shot challenge. According to Tsarukyan’s side, Garcia was supposed to drop a member of his team with body shots. Garcia failed to get the result, and Tsarukyan later said the boxer backed out of the $40,000 bet. Garcia sees it differently. He claims he was not given a fair setup, saying the person taking the shots was trained and that the conditions around the challenge were not what he expected.

Garcia says he was played

Garcia’s frustration is not only about the money. He has framed the whole situation as a trick. In his version, he walked into a challenge that looked casual, then realized he was dealing with a trained fighter who knew how to take body shots and survive the moment.

He also complained about the rules around the attempts, saying he was not allowed to work the way he wanted and did not get the clean chance he thought he was promised. That is why he is now refusing to treat the bet like a clean loss.

Tsarukyan’s side is not buying that. From his angle, Garcia took the bet, failed the challenge, and then found reasons not to pay once the cameras were gone. That is where the story went from a funny livestream moment to a public argument between a boxing star and a UFC title contender.

• Garcia says the challenge was not fair and refuses to pay the $40,000.
• Tsarukyan says Garcia lost the bet and backed away from the agreement.
• The dispute started during a Kick livestream body shot challenge.
• The argument has now turned into a boxing vs MMA talking point online.

Tsarukyan keeps raising the stakes

Tsarukyan did not leave the story at $40,000. Once Garcia refused to pay, the UFC lightweight pushed the argument into bigger territory. He challenged Garcia to boxing rounds, then also brought up the kind of MMA scenario where the boxer would be walking into Tsarukyan’s world.

That is the part fans naturally grabbed onto. Garcia can punch, and nobody questions that. He has fast hands, real boxing timing and a name big enough to pull attention from outside MMA. But Tsarukyan is not a social media fighter. He is a high-level UFC lightweight with wrestling, pressure and the kind of physical control that makes the boxing-vs-MMA debate look very different once the rules change.

Garcia does not seem interested in playing by Tsarukyan’s terms. He has pushed the money question away and turned the tone more confrontational, basically telling Tsarukyan he can come get the money if he wants it. It sounds good in a clip. It also keeps the story alive without anyone having to sign a real fight contract.

A loud story around a quiet UFC contender

For Tsarukyan, this is not the kind of story that changes his UFC ranking or gets him a title fight. It does not move the lightweight division on its own. But it does keep his name moving while he waits for the next serious UFC step.

That matters because Tsarukyan is in a strange spot. He is talented enough to be talked about near the top of the division, but the lightweight title scene has been crowded, political and slow. A viral feud with Ryan Garcia is not the same as a fight announcement, but it keeps casual fans saying his name, and in today’s fight game that never hurts.

Garcia, meanwhile, gets another combat-sports argument that suits his style perfectly. He can talk, push back, make it messy and keep the focus on himself without taking the kind of risk that comes with stepping into MMA against a grappler like Tsarukyan.

The money may never move. The fight probably stays online unless someone with a serious budget decides to chase the chaos. But the argument has already done its job. Garcia gets to say he was scammed. Tsarukyan gets to say a boxing star did not pay after losing. Fans get another round of boxing vs MMA noise, and the $40,000 bet keeps hanging there like a small number that somehow became too loud to disappear.