LAS VEGAS – Jordan Burroughs was on Arman Tsarukyan's radar under the Real American Freestyle wrestling banner. Then Friday happened.
Tsarukyan won the promotion's middleweight crossover title at RAF 14 with a 10-0 technical fall over Dillon Danis in their grudge match. That moved him to 8-1 in RAF and gave him a rebound from a loss on points to former UFC fighter Colby Covington.
Tsarukyan asserted himself as the top UFC lightweight contender with a stunning bonus-winning KO of Mauricio Ruffy in September. But he's been wrestling near-monthly for RAF, and he plans to continue that schedule.
It just won't be against Burroughs any time soon. Burroughs, considered by many as one of the best freestyle wrestlers in history, was upset by Michael Caliendo at RAF 14. Burroughs, the 2012 Olympic gold medalist and a six-time world champ, was 2-0 with RAF before the stunning setback.
And now Tsarukyan says he's off his radar.
"Jordan Burroughs is gone. That's it," Tsarukyan said at the RAF 14 post-event news conference at the Fountainbleu. "If he loses to wrestlers who are not high-level wrestlers like an Olympic champion or world champion, there's no point to wrestle him now. He's got to come back, wrestle and beat an Olympic champion … even if I wrestle him, he's got to be No. 1 in RAF.
So now I'm looking for somebody else. We've got a lot of names here, but I'm focusing on the MMA fighters with the big names. I don't want to just wrestle with no-names. I want to collect all the big names, all the best fighters. A lot of UFC fighters, a lot of good fighters signed (with RAF), so we'll see. Maybe (Georges St-Pierre). If they can bring in GSP, I would like to wrestle him."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Jordan Burroughs' upset loss wiped him from Arman Tsarukyan's RAF radar