Ilia Topuria has added Arman Tsarukyan to the list. According to a Yahoo report published Monday, Topuria said he would send the lightweight contender into a state of pure panic if the two ever shared a cage. The report frames it as a pressure argument. In Topuria’s telling, Tsarukyan wouldn’t get comfortable long enough to find his own fight.
The Tsarukyan shot didn’t come out of nowhere. It caps a week in which Topuria went after nearly every relevant name at 155, mostly in a Spanish-language interview with ABC (relayed by @abc_es and journalist @KOlmeneroMMA, then translated and posted by Championship Rounds on X).
The Pimblett material
Paddy Pimblett took the worst of it. Topuria said he could dominate Pimblett comfortably, then got personal about it: “I’ll eat him up like the sausage he is. With that head of his, just throw a punch in his direction and you’ll hit him.”
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He also broke down Pimblett’s toolkit point by point, arguing that Paddy lacks one-punch knockout power and doesn’t surprise anyone with his takedowns. His summary: “Paddy is very predictable. You can see everything he’s trying to do.”
Gaethje, the poll and the tape he won’t watch
Justin Gaethje got a strange mix of respect and dismissal. In the Pimblett answer, Topuria said “Justin is a dog,” meaning it as praise. In a separate clip he flipped it, calling Gaethje a nobody who gets no say over what comes next. Topuria said the decision sits between him and the UFC, adding that even as champion Gaethje would be stuck in the co-main if Topuria and Pimblett headlined.
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Topuria also told the 1on1 show he still hasn’t watched his fight with Gaethje and sees no reason to. On Saturday, per a post from @DovySimuMMA, he tagged Dana White in poll results that had Gaethje as the winner.
The soft spot
The one fighter who escaped the treatment was Alexander Volkanovski. Topuria called him the best featherweight ever and said he doesn’t want to run it back because he likes him too much. He conceded that beating Volkanovski once doesn’t mean Volkanovski couldn’t beat him, while pointing out that he also beat Max Holloway and did things in that division nobody else had managed.
He gave no date or opponent for his next fight, and the UFC hasn’t announced anything in the reporting so far.
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My take: the Pimblett riff is the headline grabber, but the Tsarukyan line is the one I’d circle. Calling Pimblett predictable is easy talk. Saying you’d panic Tsarukyan is a claim someone could actually make him prove, and that’s the fight I’d rather see booked first. The Yahoo piece offers only that single panic remark, so until Topuria explains the plan in his own words, this one stays in the trash-talk pile next to the sausage jokes.
