Arman
Tsarukyan will get his wish to serve as the backup fighter for
the UFC 317
main event.
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The lightweight contender revealed
in the comments of a social media post that he will be the
alternate for the lightweight title clash between Ilia
Topuria and Charles
Oliveira on June 28 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Tsarukyan’s role was later confirmed by MMAFighting.com.
Tsarukyan will presumably be on hand during fight week to make
weight and fill in should anything go awry with either Topuria or
Oliveira, who are vying for the vacant 155-pound championship after
Islam
Makhachev vacated the strap to move up to welterweight.
The 28-year-old Russian was slated to challenge Makhachev for
lightweight gold at UFC 311,
but a back injury forced him to withdraw from the event on short
notice. That prompted Dana White to declare that Tsarukyan was no
longer the division’s No. 1 contender, as evidenced by the booking
at UFC 317.
After besting ex-Bellator champ Patricky
Freire in a grappling match, Tsarukyan
offered his services as the backup fighter for both UFC 317 and
UFC 318, which is headlined by a 155-pound duel between Dustin
Poirier and Max
Holloway.
Tsarukyan has not fought in the Octagon since April 2024, when he
defeated Oliveira in what was billed as a lightweight title
eliminator at UFC 300.
“I need to take chances now. I got injured and this injury got
misinterpreted,” Tsarukyan said following the aforementioned
grappling match. “The doctor didn’t let everybody know what really
happened, so some people still think I ducked that fight. Now I
just need to get back on track, so I’m going to do whatever the UFC
tells me to do.”