Arman Tsarukyan has an answer for Alexander Volkanovski’s confidence, and it comes with a receipt. Asked about the featherweight champion’s claim that he couldn’t be held down in a lightweight fight, Tsarukyan reached back to Volkanovski’s stoppage loss to Islam Makhachev. “He said Islam Makhachev cannot knock him out too,” Tsarukyan said in an interview posted on Instagram by @yavuz_fighthunterz, as Bloody Elbow reported.
The claim he was answering came from Volkanovski’s appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show. Volkanovski brushed off the idea that the size gap at 155 pounds would hand Tsarukyan an edge on the mat. “Everyone knows how I do against wrestlers. Everyone knows I can handle wrestlers,” he said. He followed that with real praise and a firm line in the sand: “I think he’s one of the best wrestlers and grapplers in the UFC, but you ain’t holding me down. I’ve got so much respect for him, but I’m getting back up, and we’re standing and fighting.”
The Makhachev jab lands because of how that night went. Makhachev knocked Volkanovski out at UFC 294 in 2023, a rematch the Australian accepted on short notice. Tsarukyan’s point is simple enough: Volkanovski has made confident predictions about a lightweight before, and the result didn’t cooperate.
The whole conversation exists because Volkanovski keeps winning. He knocked out Movsar Evloev at UFC 333 to defend his featherweight title, and he talked about another trip to lightweight both before and after that fight. His first target was a legends fight with fellow champion Justin Gaethje. With Gaethje weighing retirement, though, Volkanovski said he’d be open to fighting Tsarukyan for a vacant title, and Bloody Elbow reported he’s actually more excited about that matchup than the Gaethje one.
Tsarukyan’s grappling credentials go well beyond the Octagon. He’s been on a strong run in the UFC and has stacked wins on the mats too, competing in Real American Freestyle bouts and submission-only matches. That’s the part of his game Volkanovski is betting he can neutralize by getting back to his feet every time.
No fight has been booked, and the vacant title scenario only happens if Gaethje actually walks away. For now this is two contenders sizing each other up through podcasts and Instagram clips.
My take: Tsarukyan’s line is a great soundbite and a slightly lazy argument. A short-notice knockout against Makhachev tells you very little about whether Volkanovski can stand up off a cage against a chain wrestler over 25 minutes, which is a positional problem, not a punching one. Volkanovski getting back up is a real skill, and he’s earned the benefit of the doubt there. But Tsarukyan doesn’t need to pin him for five rounds. He needs to make every stand-up cost something, and a featherweight carrying lightweight mass on his back for a few minutes per round will feel it in his legs by the championship rounds. If this gets made, I’d take Tsarukyan, and I’d expect the grappling exchanges to decide it long before anyone gets knocked out.
