Arman Tsarukyan says the latest chapter of his Nina drama is simple: Nina-Marie Daniele helped make him more famous and taught him how to work like a social media influencer. That is a notable shift for a 29-year-old who entered UFC in 2019 and is still trying to split his identity between fighting and online creation.
Nina-Marie Daniele’s influence
“Thank you. You helped me,” Tsarukyan said during a recent conversation with Daniele. He went further in the same exchange, saying, “Streaming. Streaming with you... Yeah. People that come see me, they say, 'Oh. You're a streamer, right?' I say, 'Yeah. I'm a streamer.' Even Russians, Russians go like, 'Oh. You're a blogger, right?'”
He also laid out the job description he wants for himself. “I'm fine. I want to be a streamer. I want to be a blogger. I want to be a fighter. I want to be a wrestler. If I have time, so -- I like it,” he said. That mix is not a side note; it is the business model he is building around his name.
UFC roster since 2019
Tsarukyan has been on the UFC roster since 2019, and he is still described as a top contender at 155 pounds. The complication is frequency: the same fighter who is pushing a creator brand has also been criticized for not fighting as often as some top-tier competitors in his division. That is where the image work matters, because the audience now sees more than one lane for him.
Tsarukyan’s own words make that shift explicit. He said Daniele helped transform his public persona and made him far more famous than he previously was, a rare admission from a fighter who is usually discussed through rankings and matchmaking. The result is a public profile that reaches beyond MMA promotion and into the broader creator economy.
UFC 331 and RAF 14
On September 19, Tsarukyan is scheduled to face Mauricio Ruffy in the co-main event of UFC 331 in Los Angeles. The winner is likely to be next in line for a title shot against Justin Gaethje, so the fight still has the straightforward sporting value that can cash in on all the online exposure.
Tsarukyan is also scheduled to wrestle Dillon Danis at RAF 14 on October 23 for the inaugural RAF middleweight crossover belt. He has another quote that fits the whole picture: “I'm waiting for the big money... Money talks in this life. Everywhere.” For him, the fame lesson from Nina-Marie Daniele is not a novelty; it is part of how he is trying to turn a fighter’s audience into something bigger than one division.
