Arman Tsarukyan says he knew he was getting passed over for the next UFC lightweight title shot when he fought in Qatar, but didn’t expect the UFC to pull out an interim title bout for UFC 324 in January.
Paddy Pimblett vs. Justin Gaethje headlines the first numbered event on Paramount / CBS, and they’ll fight for the interim 155 pound belt while Ilia Topuria deals with personal issues related to a complicated divorce.
Or at least that’s the official story. Tsarukyan doesn’t quite believe that line, and thinks this is all just another story to help the UFC build up Paddy Pimblett.
“I already knew that Paddy was going to fight Ilia Topuria in January, but I didn’t know they were going to do the interim title with Justin Gaethje and Paddy,” Tsarukyan told ESPN MMA.
“At the end of the day, Ilia didn’t fight,” he continued. “And I think this is a game plan. It’s not, like, family issue or something. It’s that they wanna make star Paddy Pimblett and bring him to fight for the title with a bigger name and make it a big fight, like Khabib versus Conor.”
Whether that’s true or not, the result is the same for Tsarukyan: he’s not getting a sniff at the lightweight title until the winner of the interim faces Topuria sometime in the middle of the year. For an angry fella like Tsarukyan, you’d think that would upset him, but he’s trying to keep things in perspective.
“They told me, ‘It’s gonna happen, be ready,’” he said of his own title shot. “Don’t get stressed, because it is what it is. And, you know, it’s a business.’”
“Everybody knows I’ll beat everybody. It’s just about time. Okay, it’s gonna be in the summer or whatever, but they know I could beat everybody. That’s why they didn’t give me title fight there. Paddy, for me, it’s a easy work. Justin Gaethje, easy work. Ilia, easy work. It was hard work against Islam, but he left. So nobody is on my level on this division right now.”
That doesn’t mean he isn’t upset over the Pimblett-induced delay.
“Why does a bulls–t guy like Paddy beat just one [top] ranked [opponent] and they made a fake ranking and put him on the [top] five?” Tsarukyan asked. “It’s a business, it’s not just a sport. So they can do whatever they wanna do, but at the end of the day, I’m gonna be a champion. It’s just time, you know, the difference of time. Beginning of the year or the end of [next] year. But it’s hard.”
