Arutyunyan who is Armenian-Russian, has a background in Greco-Roman Wrestling having competed in many tournaments in this discipline. He is a multiple time Armenian National Greco-Roman Champion and also won the gold medal at the Russian National Greco-Roman Championships in 2012. He was the silver medalist at the Russian National Championships the previous year in 2011. Some other achievements include winning the silver medal at the 2015 European Games, and picking up another 3 silver medals at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Poddubny in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The pinnacle of his career was claiming the silver medal at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics where he lost out to renowned Serbian wrestler Davor Stefanek in the final. The result of the match has been mired in controversy, with many fans and pundits asserting Arutyunyan to have been the true and more deserving winner. A considerable number of people signed a petition to award the Olympic gold medal to Harutyunyan.