Arman Tsarukyan opens up on a possible title fight while Islam Makhachev continues to duck Ilia Topuria’s bout offer

Islam Makhachev has successfully defended his lightweight title against fighters like Alexander Volkanovski, Dustin Poirier, and Renato Moicano. His last bout was a submission win against Moicano, and has made no announcement since then regarding his next bout. While former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria moved up a weight class and has been constantly calling out Makhachev, there has been no positive response from the latter. While fighters from the division and Makhachev’s team explained the reason, Arman Tsarukyan joined the line to explain the non-responsiveness of the fighter. In a recent episode of the Jaxxon Podcast, the fighter talked about why no one is willing to fight him as well as the reason behind Makhachev ducking Topuria’s proposal.
With an MMA record of 22-3-0, Arman Tsarukyan has not held a title as of yet. His last bout was a split decision win against Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 on April 14, 2024. Since then, the fighter has been away from the Octagon and has not been paired up for a bout yet. When asked why the contenders of the division have been ducking him, the fighter replied, “Right now, because it’s a dangerous fight and I don’t have a title. And so Oliveira wants to fight for the title, and Topuria wants to fight for the title. Everybody wants to fight for the title. And when they are gonna book the title fight and then I am gonna get the fight.”
Tsarukyan was further asked if he was sure to get a title fight. The fighter had a rather straight answer, “Depends. If Islam is going to move to 170, they got to give me the interim title with somebody.”

The reply stemmed from the rumours of current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev moving up to either the welterweight or middleweight division. Tsarukyan had a rather different take regarding this. He went on to state that a move up to the 170 lbs division for Makhachev is possible only after he beats Tsarukyan in a lightweight bout.
“If Islam beats me, I think he is done with this division. He beat everybody. Just he is got to beat me and people can say that.”
The fighter even defended Makhachev not accepting a title bout proposal from the former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.
“Islam doesn’t wanna fight him because if he wins, people are gonna say ‘Okay you again beat 145 fighters and he is not number one contender’”
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Makhachev has previously fought and won against Tsarukyan at UFC Fight Night on April 20, 2019. However, the duo has not faced each other since Makhachev claimed the lightweight title. While Tsarukyan believes that a bout is eminent between the fighters, no official announcement has been made as of yet.