“Tsarukyan vs. Volkanovski for gold? 🏆 Arman’s coach is open to the potential championship clash,” Sherdog wrote on X late Sunday, linking to its story on the comments.
The coach in question is Marcos “Parrumpa” da Matta of American Top Team. According to Sherdog, he supports the idea of Arman Tsarukyan meeting Alexander Volkanovski with the UFC lightweight title on the line. That would put Volkanovski back at 155 pounds against one of the division’s most dangerous wrestlers.
Tsarukyan is 24-3 and sits at No. 2 in the Knockout Daily lightweight rankings. Wikipedia lists him at No. 13 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings as of Sept. 22, 2026. His last fight was on Sept. 19. He has been chasing championship gold since his first night in the Octagon. He debuted in April 2019 against future champion Islam Makhachev at UFC Fight Night 149 and lost a unanimous decision in a fight so fast and so grappling-heavy that it earned Fight of the Night.
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Volkanovski is 29-4, a two-time UFC featherweight champion and the first Australian-born fighter to win a UFC title. He holds the record for the most featherweight title wins in UFC history. At 38 he became the oldest man to successfully defend the 145-pound belt. He fought most recently on Oct. 24.
The matchup is easy to sell on paper. Volkanovski started in Greco-Roman wrestling and won two national titles by age 12. Tsarukyan earned Master of Sports rank in freestyle wrestling before he turned pro. If neither man can take the other down easily, the fight becomes very hard to predict.
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Tsarukyan has also been talking about wrestling lately. In a clip shared on X by @DovySimuMMA, he went after Ilia Topuria’s takedown defense: “I think if you brought him to Chechnya or Dagestan, into any gym, even the amateurs would be able to take him down and ground and pound him.”
He has also been seen outside the gym. Championship Rounds posted footage of Tsarukyan meeting with boxing promoter Eddie Hearn on Oct. 30, which led @DovySimuMMA to joke on X that “Bro is never getting a title shot now.” Nothing in the sources explains what the meeting was about.
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For now, the Volkanovski fight exists only as a coach’s willingness reported by Sherdog. The UFC has not booked it, and Volkanovski has not responded in any of the material available. Even so, Tsarukyan’s corner has made it clear they would accept the fight.
