Arman Tsarukyan Backs Islam Makhachev’s Decision To Turn down Ilia Topuria

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."

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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.