Arman Tsarukyan Responds to Islam Makhachev’s Ducking Accusations

Arman
Tsarukyan has returned fire at Islam
Makhachev in response to the champ recently accusing
“Ahalkalakets” of ducking him.

Tsarukyan (22-3) scored an impressive split decision win over
former champ Charles
Oliveira at UFC
300 in what was essentially a title eliminator.

Immediately after the win Tsarukyan was offered a title shot
against Makhachev at
UFC 302 on June 1. Tsarukyan turned it down, citing the short
notice and the bid has now gone to Dustin
Poirier.

When asked about Tsarukyan declining the shot, Makhachev claimed he
was already expecting it as the Armenian-Russian has turned him
down multiple times in the past.

“I’m not surprised [he turned it down] because this guy talk about
rematch all his life, but I don’t remember, this is maybe the 3rd
or 4th time UFC give him a chance to fight me and he said no,”
Makhachev told New York Post Sports. “The UFC told me ‘We give you
opponent after UFC 300’ but in my opinion, I know if Arman beat
Oliveira he [would] never take this fight.”

Tsarukyan suffered a unanimous decision loss against Makhachev in
his short-notice UFC debut in 2019, when he gave the Dagestani a
run for his money. Responding to Makhachev’s comments, Tsarukyan
has accused the champ of insisting on a short-notice matchup in
order to have an unfair advantage.

“That’s just not truth,” the 27-year-old wrote on X (formerly known as
Twitter). “The truth is that you want to fight me on short notice
to have an extra advantage. It won’t happen again though. When was
the last time you fought 2 times in 6 weeks?”