During a recent appearance on Nina Drama’s Kick live broadcast, UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan made a statement that caught his host off guard: when his career comes to an end, he intends to go vegan.
The revelation arrived casually, mid-conversation, as Tsarukyan chatted with the popular content creator. “When I retire, I’ll be vegan too,” he stated, drawing an immediate follow-up from Nina Drama.
When pressed on his reasoning, the Armenian-born contender kept things practical. His logic was rooted in body composition and the relentless demands of competing at the elite level.
“Because you’re not gaining weight,” he explained, pointing to the difficulty of building and maintaining competitive mass on a plant-based diet.
Nina Drama was not sold on the idea. She pushed back openly, suggesting the lifestyle would not suit him.
“I don’t think you’d like it. You wouldn’t like being vegan,” she told him, before adding, “I don’t really recommend it.”
Tsarukyan had a simple counter. Retired life, as he envisions it, will carry far fewer physical demands.
“I’ll be lean and like fit,” he said, sketching out a post-career picture built around a lighter, plant-based way of living.
MMA legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has been one of the loudest voices on the skeptical side of that debate. Jackson famously warned his own son, who aspired to become an MMA star while following a vegan lifestyle, that success under those conditions was essentially off the table.
“Son, you can’t, there’s no way you would be an MMA champion and be a vegan,” Jackson told him, arguing that the dietary restrictions put competitors at a genuine disadvantage. “You’re just making everything hard. You’re helping your opponents.”
Jackson has offered only limited praise for plant-based competitors, carving out a narrow exception for one particular duo: “The Diaz brothers are the only vegan athletes worth a damn.”
Nick and Nate Diaz have long been associated with plant-based nutrition. However, they do consume certain animal products such as fish and eggs.
