Despite being the current No.2 ranked contender in the UFC’s lightweight division, Arman Tsarukyan believes that someone further down the rankings is going to get the first shot at Ilia Topuria’s title.

The No.5 ranked Justin Gaethje has been touted as a potential challenger, but Tsarukyan believes it won’t be him either as he feels that the UFC will line up Paddy Pimblett against Topuria instead.

“No, Gaethje won’t fight Topuria,” Tsarukyan told Sport24 in Russian. “It’s my opinion. The UFC can do whatever they want. The UFC could even put Topuria against a debutant. But I think it’s more likely to be Pimblett than Gaethje.

Pimblett is only ranked No.7 in the division, but he is currently 7-0 in the UFC and already has a past history of bad blood with the champion that would help sell the fight.

However, Tsarukyan believes that Pimblett won’t be able to beat the two-division champion, and a win against him could lead to Topuria moving up another weight class before he gets a chance to face him.

“I think he’ll defend his title,” Tsarukyan said of Topuria. “If Islam [Makhachev] wins the [170lb] title, he will move up to 170 and want to become a triple champ.”

“He won’t want to fight me because he can make more money fighting Islam and he has the chance to become the first-ever triple champion in history and earn big money. And even if he loses to Islam, he can say he moved up to 170 and drop back down. He’ll have the excuse that he moved up two weight classes.”

Despite Tsarukyan’s thoughts on the matter, at this stage the UFC brass haven’t given any definitive answers on what comes next for Topuria since winning the vacant belt by KO’ing Charles Oliveira back in June.