Arman Tsarukyan isn’t making the cut. “I am not going down to 145 lbs,” the lightweight contender said, according to Sherdog, which reported Saturday that he’s no longer considering a move to featherweight. That kills any version of the Movsar Evloev fight that had been floating around.
Evloev had been the one pushing it. Earlier Saturday, Bloody Elbow posted on X that Evloev had called out Tsarukyan for potentially stepping on his territory, with a short warning attached: “We’ll fight.”
Then Evloev’s night went sideways. At UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, Alexander Volkanovski finished him by TKO in the second round to keep the featherweight title. Evloev walked in at 20-0 by Knockout Daily’s records, ranked No. 2 at 145, and walked out with the first loss of his pro career. He took it like a pro, too. “He’s like good wine. Older, stronger, better,” Evloev said afterward, per UFC on Paramount+, before calling Volkanovski a legend.
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Sherdog’s report on Tsarukyan landed roughly two hours after the result. So a guy who spent fight week guarding his division now has no title and no Tsarukyan.
Tsarukyan, 24-3, sits No. 2 at lightweight and was No. 13 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings as of Sept. 22. His week has been loud outside the octagon. Championship Rounds posted footage of a brawl between Tsarukyan and Dillon Danis at the RAF 14 press conference on Thursday, then reported that Tsarukyan beat Danis 10-0 at the event and stepped on him afterward. Subtle, he is not.
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One detail makes the territory talk a little awkward. Our data lists both men with American Top Team, so this beef could follow them into the same practice room.
Evloev, a Master of Sports in Greco-Roman wrestling and a former M-1 Global bantamweight champion, now has to rebuild at featherweight after the Volkanovski loss. Tsarukyan stays put at 155. If Evloev still wants him, the scale says he’ll have to climb 10 pounds to get the fight.
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