Georgio Poullas has had a long-standing offer on the table.
It’s simple. Take him down, win $1,000.
Thus far, no one has walked away with the cash prize. Poullas has built a brand around the challenge, going viral on social media time and time again.
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A Division I wrestler at Cleveland State University, Poullas doesn’t have the wrestling accolades or pedigree as many of his fellow RAF competitors. However, he’s garnered more interest than many of them. It’s a large portion of why he’s headlining RAF 6, which takes place Feb. 28 at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz. vs. UFC star Arman Tsarukyan.
Despite Tsarukyan’s reputation, the offer still applies.
“The $1,000 was on the line last match. It’ll be on the line this match,” Poullas recently told MMA Junkie.
Poullas, 27, isn’t intimidated by Tsarukyan, the wrestler. Before this offer, Poullas admits he wasn’t even familiar with who Tsarukyan was. But he’s also a casual observer of MMA.
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“Honestly, I didn’t really know much about him at all until recently,” Poullas said. “I watch the UFC sometimes here and there. But I’m not into it like a lot of people would expect. To be honest with you, this may shock you, but I never watched college wrestling either. Growing up, I never watched college wrestling. I didn’t start watching college wrestling until I started doing my YouTube series. I just started watching wrestling like two years ago. All the guys at RAF, I’m sitting next to them, and I don’t know who half of them are. Michael Chandler came up to me and introduced himself to me as a big fan, like, ‘What’s your name? Nice to meet you.’ I just didn’t know. I felt rude because he’s a big name and he’s a fan of me and I didn’t know who he was. I’m not into all that like people would think. I just wrestle. I do it because I love it. But I’m not into who is who.”
Now that he’s familiarized himself, Poullas tips his cap to Tsarukyan both for his abilities in the cage and outside of it during a recent unofficial PR tour.
“I think Arman and his team are doing really well for him. He’s on a huge PR run right now. He’s popping up everywhere. He’s doing well for himself. He’s on a hot streak, and I want to be the guy to take him out. … When I came across Arman and the opportunity to wrestle him, I felt like that was from God. I think I’d be stupid not to get the opportunity. He’s a great wrestler. But I’ve been wrestling my whole life, and I’ve wrestled a lot of wrestlers that are better than him.”
“… I’ve actually watched quite a few of his fights. At this point, his wrestling is good, man. His wrestling is good. But you’ve got to understand he’s a fighter. He’s one of the best fighters in the world, from what I understand. You’re taking him out of the fight game, and you’re putting him into wrestling, which is my game. His wrestling is very elite. He had a great performance against Lance Palmer. I don’t know what was going on with Lance. I don’t know if he hadn’t competed or practiced in forever. From what I do know about Lance Palmer, I think everybody was expecting a different performance. Honestly, I couldn’t really even scout Arman too much from that match because it didn’t last very long and there wasn’t much that happened.”
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So will Tsarukyan be the one to break the streak? Can he take Poullas down and secure an extra $1,000? Maybe, according to Poullas.
“I definitely think I’ll be very hard to take down,” Poullas said. “I think I’ve proven that I am human. Every dog has its day. Eventually, somebody’s going to take me down eventually. If I went my whole life without getting taken down, that’d be pretty crazy. But even your best wrestlers, your Olympic champs, they still lose. They still get taken down. So far, I’ve been able to hold it off. I think going into this next match, it’s going to be a real challenge. But I think I can still go without getting taken down.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Georgio Poullas offers Arman Tsarukayn money for RAF takedown
