Arman Tsarukyan vs Urijah Faber

Arman Tsarukyan added another loud result to his spring schedule, dominating Urijah Faber in the main event of RAF 8 and closing the match with a 13-1 technical fall after a one-sided performance that never really gave the UFC Hall of Famer a chance to settle in. What began as a curiosity booking turned into a showcase for Tsarukyan’s speed, balance, and control, and by the end of the night the result looked exactly like what it was on paper: an active top UFC lightweight overwhelming an older former star who still carries wrestling instincts but no longer operates at the same physical pace.

The match changed shape early. Tsarukyan wasted no time forcing exchanges, getting to Faber’s legs, and building points before the bout had any real rhythm to it. Faber tried to stay composed and work his way into cleaner reactions, but Tsarukyan was too quick on the entries and too sharp once he got his hands connected. By the time the first real phase of the match had settled, Tsarukyan was already well ahead and controlling both the pace and the position. He was not just winning scrambles. He was dictating where the entire match was taking place.

The most talked-about moment came when Tsarukyan shot in and drove Faber off the edge of the stage during a takedown sequence. Both men tumbled off the platform near the commentary position, creating the kind of clip that immediately outran the rest of the match on social media. Neither fighter was injured, and after a short pause the action resumed, but the moment added even more attention to a result that was already moving in one direction. Once they restarted, Tsarukyan did not lose focus. He went back to work, stayed on top of the exchanges, and closed things out with another takedown and a big throw that finished the technical fall.

RAF 8 Main Event Result

For Tsarukyan, the result extends a stretch in which he keeps finding ways to stay in the center of the conversation even when he is outside the UFC cage. He is now 3-0 in RAF competition, and every outing has fed the same point. He is not treating these appearances like casual side work. He is using them to stay active, sharpen his wrestling timing, and keep his name live while the UFC lightweight picture continues to move around him. That matters because Tsarukyan is still one of the most dangerous names around the top of the division, and every dominant performance outside the Octagon keeps pressure on the title conversation around him.

Faber, to his credit, took a difficult assignment. At 46, he stepped in against a younger, stronger, active UFC contender who was always going to be favored once the match became physical. Faber still has the instincts and the name value to make a booking like this interesting, but once Tsarukyan got moving, the age and activity gap became impossible to ignore. That does not erase what Faber has meant to lighter weight classes over the years, but it did show how big the difference is when a retired legend has to deal with a current elite athlete who is still competing at top speed.

Tsarukyan did not stop with the win. After the match, he immediately turned his attention to Colby Covington and openly called him out for a future RAF meeting. Covington responded by saying he was willing to make it happen, even if that meant adjusting his already scheduled date against Chris Weidman at RAF 9 in May. That exchange pushed the story forward beyond a single result and gave Tsarukyan another headline attached to the same night. He also mentioned Chael Sonnen after the match, but the Covington angle drew the stronger reaction because it sounded much closer to a real next step than a passing post-fight line.

The result itself was never especially close, but that does not make it small. Tsarukyan used a main-event slot, a famous opponent, and a viral moment to put his name back in front of fans in a very direct way. In the UFC world, that still matters. The lightweight division is always crowded, always loud, and always full of names trying to protect their ground near the top. Tsarukyan understands that staying visible matters almost as much as staying ready. At RAF 8, he did both. He won big, created a clip people will keep replaying, and left with another possible matchup already in the air.