Lightweight No.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan was angrered on Saturday night after seeing Paddy Pimblett being called into the Octagon to square off against newly crowned champion Ilia Topuria, but he’s not given up hope that he can still be the next challenger for the belt.
Tsarukyan points the finger of blame solely at color commentator Joe Rogan for bringing Pimblett into the cage after Topuria KO’d Charles Oliveira to win the title, and says he’s taken heart from the fact that Dana White has since disapproved of that decision.
“Joe Rogan called [Pimblett],” Tsarukyan said on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel. “It was a Joe Rogan mistake, and he shouldn’t even call his name and bring him to the octagon. He called out Paddy to come to the octagon. I was surprised, but when Dana said, ‘It shouldn’t be like that,’ I said, OK, hopefully he’s not fighting for the title. …
“For 20, 30 minutes I was, of course, upset, because I said, ‘This is not sport, this is WWE. They can do whatever they want to do.’ I’ve been fighting with everybody and had a good winning streak with top fighters. But then, when I listened to Dana’s interview about Paddy, I said, OK, hopefully he’s not fighting for the title.
“They must put me on the title because I’m No. 1 contender, most deserving fighter right now. After me, they can fight. But next it’s me, for sure.”
It is hard to argue with Tsarukyan’s logic as he was previously positioned as the No.1 contender after winning a title eminator against Charles Oliveira by split decision last year.
And Tsarukyan was then lined up to fight Islam Makhachev for the title at UFC 311 in January, before a back injury during weigh-in day took him out of the fight.
Tsarukyan’s late call-off didn’t go down well with Dana White, who has been reluctant to give him another shot at the title since. White did however indicate that Tsarukyan successfully making weight to be the back-up fighter for last weekend’s event was a step in the right direction, but truth be told it didn’t sound like he felt that was enough to consider him the next contender.
Tsarukyan faces competition from the likes of Pimblett and Justin Gaethje, who have also been loudly calling for the next shot at the title, but the 28-year-old is convinced he has the skill-set to beat Topuria.
“When the fight started, I wanted Topuria to win, because, for me, it’s easier to fight Topuria than Oliveira,” Tsarukyan said. “For my style. Because I like to take down people. When you take down Charles Oliveira, he can still choke you or do submissions. Topuria is going to try to get up. He’s going to defend. And then you can just go 1000 times to take him down because there’s no problems on the ground. He’s not going to try to choke you or something.”
“He never fought with wrestlers like me, who know freestyle wrestling,” Tsarukyan added later in the interview. “…Bryce Mitchell…as the worst fighter at 145, he took [Topuria] down and held him. He got his single-leg and even he took him down, and he couldn’t escape. He was pulling guard. If you’re good on the ground, you never pull guard. You’re trying to sweep or get up from there. I can tell he’s not high level.”
