Sherdog Prospect Watch: Armen Petrosyan

Armen Petrosyan put his opponent to sleep and brought Dana White to his feet 😳 #DWCS pic.twitter.com/q5hOilJQzY

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 20, 2021

UFC Fight Night 202 will feature the promotional debut of Armen Petrosyan, a muay Thai champion who successfully transitioned to mixed martial arts. He will make his first Ultimate Fighting Championship appearance against Gregory Rodrigues in a three-round middleweight showcase on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Nicknamed “Superman,” the Armenian-Russian fighter carries a 6-1 record. His opponents have combined for a 33-16-2 mark, which equates to a .647 winning percentage.

Petrosyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, on Nov. 3, 1990. In spite of his surname, he is not related to the famed Petrosyan brothers, Giorgio and Armen, who currently compete in kickboxing. After leaving his home country and moving to Russia, Petrosyan took up muay Thai in Krasnoyarsk. As an amateur, he took part in a variety of tournaments, notably winning a championship in 2015 in Bangkok, Thaland, and the 2017 Cup of Russia. Afterward, he dedicated himself to mastering freestyle wrestling and grappling in Dagestan.

Petrosyan’s first MMA bout went down under the World Combat Self-Defense Association banner in October 2018, as he smashed Makhmadsharif Mirzokhodzhaev in 2:28 and barely broke a sweat while doing so. He then stopped Sultan Gizatulin via third-round technical knockout in their middleweight encounter at WCSA Combat Ring 29. After picking up back-to-back finishes, Petrosyan took the call from Fight Nights Global. The promotion was searching for someone it could pair with Artur Aliskerov in a battle for the vacant light heavyweight championship in the FNG “MMA Festival: 75th Anniversary of the Great Victory” headliner on Aug. 28, 2020.

Featuring an unblemished 7-0 record and a wrestling background, Aliskerov was quite a challenge for Petrosyan at the time. Still, Petrosyan rose to the occasion, as his striking proved to be too much for Aliskerov to handle. The Dagestani fighter was denied in his attempts to move the action to the floor several times. Aliskerov scored one last successful takedown in the second round, and it required some effort from Petrosyan to surge back to his feet. Once in the middle of the cage, Petrosyan let his punches and kicks flow, as he seriously marked his adversary’s face and lead leg. After taking considerable damage, Aliskerov rushed hands-down in a desperate takedown attempt and was met by a right hook from Petrosyan. Separated from his senses, Aliskerov collapsed to the canvas, where Petrosyan landed a pair of unnecessary punches and prompted the stoppage at the 3:32 mark.


In his first title defense, Petrosyan defeated Dmitry Minakov—the younger brother of former Bellator MMA heavyweight kingpin Vitaly Minakov. Once again, “Superman” handled a stout wrestler, thanks to the striking clinic he put forth, as he folded Minakov with a liver kick at the 3:09 mark of the second round. What transpired in his second title defense came as a shock to many. Petrosyan was matched with Hassan Yousefi in the Fight Nights Global 102 main event on June 18, 2021. After studying his opponent for a few seconds, Petrosyan elected to throw caution to the wind and went toe-to-toe with the Iranian in the center of the cage. A perfectly timed right hand found its way to Petrosyan’s chin, and it was followed by a left hook. Petrosyan fell to the mat, and Yousefi forced the referee to intervene after several subsequent hammerfists. The match lasted just 63 seconds.


Petrosyan bounced back from the stinging defeat after a little more than a month and clobbered Alexander Zemlyakov in 15 seconds at a Colosseum MMA event in Moscow. From there, he moved to Dana White’s Contender Series and faced Kaloyan Kolev on Oct. 19, 2021. Once more, Petrosyan solved a wrestler’s riddle with heavy strikes. After spending some time with his back pinned to the fence, Petrosyan created some distance for his punches. He staggered Kolev and ultimately floored him with a head kick, forcing referee Chris Tognoni to step in 4:27 into Round 1.