Arman Tsarukyan has a scouting report on Alexander Volkanovski, and it won’t end up on a greeting card. Asked by Helen Yee whether he’d fight the featherweight champion for the lightweight title, Tsarukyan said yes and then got specific.
“Yeah, I would fight him. He’s old, bad chin. He’s a tough opponent, but he’s a little bit old now. For me, it’s a perfect fight.”
That’s a contender answering a question straight. I’ll take that every time.
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The timing makes sense. Volkanovski, 38, just stopped the previously undefeated Movsar Evloev in the second round of the UFC 333 main event on Oct. 24 to keep the 145-pound belt. Almost immediately he started selling a superfight with lightweight champion Justin Gaethje. First he floated both men vacating to make it happen. After the win, he adjusted the pitch to a title fight that doubles as a retirement bout for both of them. Dana White said after the event that it would be hard to deny Volkanovski much of anything.
Then Volkanovski sat down with Ariel Helwani and offered a version of the plan that runs straight through Tsarukyan. According to Championship Rounds, which posted the clip, he said he’d give up the featherweight title and move up to face Tsarukyan for the lightweight belt if Gaethje retires.
“I’ll vacate the featherweight belt and fight Arman for the title. There it is,” Volkanovski said. “If I was champion at lightweight, I’m fighting Arman. 100%. If Gaethje doesn’t wanna [fight Arman], I’ll do it. That excites me.”
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The double retirement idea has already taken heat. Chael Sonnen went after it on his YouTube channel, saying “Volkanovski just laid out one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard.” Sonnen’s bigger gripe was that Volkanovski has already had two cracks at lightweight gold, losing both times to Islam Makhachev, and kept his featherweight title in his pocket for each attempt. “When Volk went up, he did not vacate; he did not burn his boats,” Sonnen said. His suggestion was the Ilia Topuria route: give up the belt and walk into the division with no guarantees.
Over at MMA Fighting, Jed Meshew wrote that Tsarukyan deserves the lightweight title shot and that nobody should argue otherwise. He also pointed out that the UFC has passed him over before. Meshew’s prediction was grim for Tsarukyan, with Volkanovski getting yet another two-division attempt and Tsarukyan staying the best lightweight on Earth with no belt to show for it.
So what’s actually next? No UFC booking for Tsarukyan has been announced. His next scheduled competition is a wrestling match, with RAF announcing that he’ll headline RAF 15 in Chicago on Nov. 28 against Anthony Pettis.
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My take: the only version of this worth booking is the one Volkanovski described to Helwani. He drops the 145 belt, comes up and fights the guy the whole division has been ducking around. A hug-it-out retirement match between two men who like each other leaves Tsarukyan standing in the hallway again, and he has already spent enough time there. Volkanovski said that fight excites him. It should excite the matchmakers too. Until somebody signs something, Tsarukyan’s next opponent is Pettis, on a wrestling mat in Chicago, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
