It was Saturday, Sept. 19. I was sitting about 10 feet from the cage at Crypto.com Arena when I noticed a section of roughly 100 fans standing throughout Edmen Shahbazyan’s fight. It was still the early preliminary card at UFC 331, with hours to go before the main event. By the end of the evening, the Armenian supporters at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles had two big wins to celebrate. Shahbazyan defeated Brunno Ferreira by unanimous decision, and Arman Tsarukyan knocked out Mauricio Ruffy in the first round of the co-main event. Hundreds of Armenian fans, if not thousands, had come to watch the two Armenian fighters. Their fights were hours apart, and the turnout for Shahbazyan showed that many had made a point of arriving early. The Armenian American middleweight had to work for his victory. Heading into the third round against Ferreira, the media members around me had the fight tied at one round apiece. There was still a fight to win, and Shahbazyan closed it out with a strong final round, landing combinations that knocked Ferreira off balance. All three judges awarded Shahbazyan the fight. When Bruce Buffer announced his name, the arena erupted. Edmen celebrated with the Armenian flag draped around his shoulders. During his interview with Joe Rogan, he thanked his supporters and gave a shoutout to the Los Angeles Armenians who had come to see him. Later, during his media availability, Shahbazyan explained the choice behind his walkout music. He had entered to “Toxicity” by System of a Down, paying homage to the Armenian American rock band while getting the crowd buzzing before the fight. Seven bouts separated Shahbazyan’s victory from Tsarukyan’s appearance. Fans had plenty to watch in between, including finishes by Marlon “Chito” Vera, Sean Sharaf and Patricio Pitbull. Sharaf’s win carried another Armenian connection through his coach, Gokor Ambaryan, who trains him in Las Vegas. By the time Tsarukyan was ready to walk out, the buzz around the arena was something you could both hear and feel. Twenty months earlier, Tsarukyan had withdrawn from his scheduled title fight at UFC 311 in Inglewood. Now he was back in front of the Southern California crowd, with Ruffy waiting for him in a bout scheduled for five rounds. Ruffy made his entrance first. Tsarukyan followed to a song by streamer N3on. About a minute and a half into the walkout, that song ended and his familiar Armenian music began. The crowd erupted again. The reaction to that change in music was something to behold, and it came before Tsarukyan had even started fighting. He needed less than one round to give the fans another reason to get loud. With four seconds remaining in the first, Tsarukyan knocked Ruffy out with a vicious combination of elbows. Tsarukyan ran in celebration, climbed out of the cage and celebrated with people at ringside. After the long buildup to his appearance, the fight had ended before either man could return to his corner for the first break. At the press conference afterward, Tsarukyan told me he had been overcome with emotion after the knockout. He felt that all the hard work he had put in over the year had paid off. The Armenian support had been there long before either result was decided. Fans stood through three rounds for Shahbazyan and, hours later, roared when Tsarukyan’s Armenian music filled the arena. Both fighters had a crowd behind them from the moment they walked out. By the end of the night, both had given that crowd a victory. The post Two Armenian fighters, one big night at UFC 331 appeared first on The Armenian Weekly .