UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is anticipating that he will be headlining UFC 311 on January 18th in Inglewood, California against Arman Tsarukyan, but his manager has now revealed that they still haven’t received a contract for the fight.
“No. The contracts have not been signed,” Makhachev’s manager Rizvan Magomedov told Ushatayka. “We personally have not signed or received anything yet. But we are prepared for January 18th.
“Back in September we were given this date. We accepted it, and there was no specific confirmation about the opponent yet. We assume that it will be Arman Tsarukyan.”
At this stage there’s been no indication why there would be a hold up on making the fight official, though there’s always the possibility that Visa issues could throw a spanner in the works.
The two fighters have fought once before, with Tsarukyan making his UFC debut against the future champion back in April of 2019, where they had a competitive battle which Makhachev would go on to win via unanimous decision.
Makachev’s winning streak now extends to 14 fights, including three successful defenses of his 155lb title, while Tsarukyan has gone 9-1 in the Octagon since, including his current four-fight winning streak.
As things stand UFC 311 has a number of other notable fights attached to it, including a clash of former light-heavyweight champions Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill as well as the likes of Jailton Almeida vs. Sergey Spivak, Kevin Holland vs. Reiner de Ridder, Johnny Walker vs. Bogdan Guskov and Payton Talbott vs. Raoni Barcelos.
