Whatever happens this time, Georgio Poullas won’t be surprised. It doesn’t matter if Arman Tsarukyan takes another swing at him on the wrestling mats. It doesn’t matter if their return match at RAF 7 this Saturday turns into a full-scale fistfight right off the bat.

After his last experience on the mat with the UFC lightweight contender, Poullas insists he’s beyond any capacity for astonishment when it comes to the behavior of Tsarukyan — during or after the actual competition.

“I can tell you, I’ll be ready for it this time, whatever happens,” Poullas told Uncrowned. “It was a coward move, what [Tsarukyan] did. He waited until I wasn’t looking. I mean, if you’re going to hit me, hit me when I’m looking at you. Don’t be a coward about it.”

In case you’re among the small segment of the population who somehow missed the viral video moment from their first encounter at RAF 6, here’s a quick summary of how things went down:

— Tsarukyan took exception to Poullas’ use of clubbing hands to the head early on in their wrestling match and responded with a blatant open-hand slap that cost him a point.

— Poullas kept at it, and was eventually penalized a point himself.

— Order threatened to dissolve entirely. Tsarukyan took a swipe at Poullas between rounds. RAF officials had to walk on the mats and try to cool everyone down.

— Tsarukyan won a narrow victory on points (5-3). Then the real fun started.

The part of the video that spread far and wide on the internet was Tsarukyan shoving Poullas onto his back after the match had clearly ended, then getting on top of Poullas and punching him in the head before outside forces could intervene. Tsarukyan also attempted a knee strike on Poullas as bodies came tumbling onto the mat, but by then the chaos of the moment had gotten in the way of any effective, targeted violence.

If you go back and watch the RAF broadcast on FOX Nation, you’ll hear commentators expressing regret and disapproval at this display. Won’t someone think of the children watching and the example we’re setting? That sort of thing. But honestly? The moment was perfect for the viral video age. It takes a lot for a clip from some freestyle wrestling event to break containment and find its way into the open waters of social media. A post-match brawl will do it, though. And when it includes a notoriously hot-headed UFC title contender, even better.

Many of the initial reactions focused on that part, on Tsarukyan himself, and on the question of what exactly his problem might be. This is the same guy who, while making his walk to the cage at UFC 300, paused to attack a fan who directed an unkind hand gesture his way. More recently he head-butted an opponent — and seemingly injured him — during the ceremonial weigh-ins the day before their fight. Now it seems he can’t even get through a wrestling match without misbehaving in some memorable fashion.

Poullas, of course, has his own theories about what set Tsarukyan off in their match.

“I think when he gets a tough opponent who frustrates him, he acts out,” Poullas said. “He obviously doesn’t have respect for his opponents. I think when he’s challenged or frustrated, he doesn’t know how to handle it.”

But especially for someone like Poullas, this was not all bad news. He’s a guy who knows a little something about self-promotion via viral video. If you’d heard of him before this, it probably wasn’t as a mid-level college wrestler at Cleveland State or Rider University. More likely it was as the guy from social media promising $1,000 to anyone on the street who could take him down.

“Take me down, get $1,000” is exactly the kind of gimmick that Instagram and TikTok are made for, so this worked well as an attention-getting routine. (Poullas claims he was never taken down in these impromptu challenge matches, though there are dissenting opinions on that.) Even now, if you type his name into Google, you’re less likely to see Poullas identified as a standout wrestler than as a “social media influencer.”

It’s a job title Poullas doesn’t shy away from, in part because it arose out of necessity.

“It doesn't bother me. I mean, I am an influencer and I am a wrestler, but why do people know me? Because of social media, because I post my wrestling clips out there,” Poullas said. “The reason why I did what I did was because there weren't many social media wrestlers. There was no one doing what I'm doing. There wasn't money to be made in the sport. I enjoyed wrestling. I wanted to grow the sport. So it was a win-win for me. Make some money and promote the sport of wrestling and have fun with what I'm doing. Ultimately it all worked out for me.”

You can see how a guy with that approach wouldn’t mind a viral moment on the wrestling mats opposite a top UFC contender. In the attention economy of the internet, getting into a brawl with Tsarukyan was arguably even better than beating him would have been. Poullas’ only regret is that Tsarukyan got his shots in and then disappeared in the throng of bodies on the mat before Poullas had a chance at payback.

“Anything that happens like that, a brawl with two high-level guys, it’s bound to be viral,” Poullas said. “I'm not upset at the fact that it happened. It brought a lot of attention to this sport and I think it did great things for the sport. In the heat of the moment, yeah, I wanted to fight the guy. I was looking for him, but there were just so many people out there so quick that I didn't get a chance to throw a punch back. But I think for the sport and just the virality of it, I think it was a good thing.”

It did earn Poullas the rematch on Saturday, just one month after that first meeting. And it has successfully kept his name in headlines. It might have even helped him open the door to some opportunities in MMA — Poullas told Uncrowned he has agreed to a contract for an MMA fight, but said he was unable to discuss specifics yet — now that even more fans from all corners of the fight sports world know his name.

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But now comes the part where he has to deal with an angry pro fighter who has a reputation for lashing out violently even when it costs him. You just never know what you’re going to get with Tsarukyan, or when you’re going to get it. He’s proven that he doesn’t mind straying outside the rules or well beyond the bounds of competition. And now he has even more motivation to do so.

“I won’t be surprised if there’s another brawl,” Poullas said. “I’ll be ready.”

And if it does come to that, Poullas added: “I’d love a chance to punch that guy in the face.”