Arman Tsarukyan defends Islam Makhachev’s
stance of not fighting Ilia Topuria.🤝„Islam doesn’t want to fight him because if he beats Topuria,
people gonna say ‚You again beat a 145-pound fighter.‘ And if Islam
beats me, I think he’s done with this division.“Advertisement
🎥 @JaxxonPodcast
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— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
April 21, 2025
Arman
Tsarukyan understands why Islam
Makhachev doesn’t want to fight Ilia
Topuria.
Topuria recently vacated his featherweight title and is rallying
for a lightweight gold bid against Makhachev. However, Makhachev
isn’t willing to fight “La Leyenda” immediately, as he claims he
has little to gain from the matchup.
Makhachev has defended his title twice against two-time
featherweight champ Alexander
Volkanovski, who was once the No. 1 pound-for-pound
UFC fighter. Regardless, many undermined those wins, saying
Makhachev beat a smaller opponent. Hence, Makhachev doesn’t want to
fight another featherweight in Topuria until the Georgian-Spaniard
has proven himself at 155 pounds. And Tsarukyan understands
that.
Currently the No. 1 ranked lightweight contender, Tsarukyan
believes Makhachev can claim to have wiped out the division if he
beats him. Tsarukyan also believes a victory over him is the last
hurdle in Makhachev’s plans to move to welterweight.
“Islam doesn’t want to fight him because if he wins people [are]
gonna say, ‘OK, you again beat a 145 [pound] fighter,” Tsarukyan
said on the Jaxxon podcast. “He’s not No. 1 contender.’ If Islam
beats me then I think he’s done with this division, he beat
everybody. Just he gotta beat me and people can say that.”
Currently riding a four-fight winning streak, Tsarukyan was
originally scheduled to fight Makhachev at UFC 311
this past January. However, the 28-year-old was forced out a day
before the fight due to a back injury and replaced by Renato
Carneiro, who suffered a first-round submission loss against
Makhachev. Dana White expressed disappointment with Tsarukyan’s
decision to pull out and said that “Ahalkalakets” is definitely not
getting the next title shot at lightweight.
Tsarukyan suffered a hard-fought unanimous decision loss in his UFC
debut against Makhachev in 2019. He has since been adamant on not
taking a rematch against Makhachev without being fully
prepared.
Meanwhile, Topuria won his featherweight title against Volkanovski
last year and defended it only once against Max
Holloway before moving up to lightweight.