Arman Tsarukyan has had to answer questions about Nina Drama more than once this year, and each time, his answer has stayed the same. Fans have spent months shipping the UFC lightweight contender and the MMA content creator, fueled by their flirty on-screen chemistry and frequent livestreams together. In a new interview with Vpiska, Tsarukyan addressed it again, this time explaining exactly how deliberate the whole dynamic actually is.

Asked whether the fun energy in his Nina Drama content was intentional, Tsarukyan didn’t hesitate.

“Right,” he said in the interview with Russian YouTuber Vpiska.

When the interviewer followed up by asking whether Nina Drama’s partner is usually present while they film, Tsarukyan confirmed it directly.

“Boyfriend,” he said, before laying out exactly what fans are actually watching. “It’s all cinematography. We are filming a movie here, a multi-episode movie, where I play my role and she plays hers.”

That’s not a new explanation from him either. Back in April, Tsarukyan gave nearly the same answer on the PBD Podcast when Patrick Bet-David asked him directly if he was dating Nina Drama, 37, whose full name is Nina Marie Daniele.

“Nina and I are best friends,” Tsarukyan said at the time. “This is just the content we do together. She has a boyfriend. Her boyfriend creates the videos and he’s always with her. He’s so smart. They work together.”

Nina Drama went public with her own pushback shortly after that clip circulated, specifically rejecting any suggestion that she was romantically involved with UFC fighters.

The Vpiska interview also turned toward Tsarukyan’s own family, and he made clear where he draws the line.

“Not positively, not negatively either,” the Armenian further added in the interview. “My family isn’t involved in my work. What I do on social media is strictly business. I just made it clear that nobody should interfere with my work. Doesn’t matter what I do or who I do it with.”

That firmness isn’t new either. The speculation has followed him into multiple public settings this year, fueled in part by moments like a livestream in Armenia where Tsarukyan surprised Nina Drama with a watch reportedly worth around $12,000.

Before his RAF 8 match against Urijah Faber, Faber himself brought up the friendship at a press conference, pointedly reminding Tsarukyan that Nina Drama is married. Months later, ahead of his Real American Freestyle Wrestling match against Georgio Poullas, the American wrestler joked that Tsarukyan should send Nina Drama on a date with him instead of collecting a $10,000 bet, a comment Tsarukyan didn’t let slide.

“My girlfriend? Guys, you never ask about family,” Tsarukyan said. “Don’t ask about family, moms, sisters, and girls too. If someone gonna talk about that, you’re going to be dead.

“I don’t care if this is RAF or UFC belt. If you’re gonna touch my family, you’re going to be dead and you too. Shut your mouth and be respectful for the girls, okay? You can talk about me but not my friends.”

Nina Drama also confronted Poullas after the press conference, calling his remark insulting, before the wrestler apologized.

Tsarukyan, who is married to Milena and has two daughters with her, has kept the same explanation consistent across every setting he’s been asked about it: this is a professional partnership, not a secret relationship, one that just happens to be working exactly as intended for his career.

That business framing isn’t just Tsarukyan’s own spin either. Nina Drama backs the same explanation, and even Dana White has pointed to it as a real reason for his rising profile.

Dana White praises Arman Tsarukyan and Nina Drama’s content strategy

Nina Drama has echoed that same explanation herself, describing the entire arrangement as a shared business relationship built around sponsors rather than any individual pairing.

“We’re all together,” she said. “All teams together. Talking, planning, strategizing, working together. A lot of the videos you see with me and Merab, with Arman, with Alex Pereira, we all have the same sponsors. So we all help each other create content, market. We all travel the world with the sponsors. We all network together. We all work together.”

Dana White, who hasn’t always been Tsarukyan’s biggest fan given past incidents like the RAF brawl and the headbutt against Dan Hooker, has actually credited this exact content strategy for raising his profile.

“Arman definitely is,” White said, naming him among the promotion’s top current stars. “That guy has done a great job of getting out there and getting himself a lot of attention and a lot of Nina Drama work. If you look at the people that have been built, it is impossible to deny that Nina Drama has helped build some of these guys, from Merab to Sean Strickland, Arman, these guys are smart; they lean into the relationship with her.”

The numbers back that up. Tsarukyan’s Instagram following has grown significantly since the collaborations began, putting him ahead of several more established UFC names. He’s still the No. 2-ranked lightweight contender waiting on his title shot, but between his in-cage résumé and the audience Nina Drama’s content has helped build around him, most fans see him as next in line for the 155-pound belt whenever that opportunity finally comes.