Alexander Volkanovski is willing to hand back the featherweight title for a crack at Arman Tsarukyan and the lightweight belt. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, the featherweight champion laid out a clear scenario. If Justin Gaethje retires, Volkanovski vacates at 145 and moves up to meet Tsarukyan for the title.
He didn’t leave much wiggle room. “I’ll vacate the featherweight belt and fight Arman for the title. There it is,” Volkanovski said. He doubled down a moment later: “If I was champion at lightweight, I’m fighting Arman. 100%.” He also said the matchup excites him, which is about as clean a public yes as you get from a champion. Sherdog picked up the story Thursday.
Tsarukyan Already Said Yes
The interest runs both ways. Two days before Volkanovski’s comments to Helwani, Tsarukyan told Helen Yee he’d take the fight. He also took a shot at the champ while doing it.
View post on X
“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,” Tsarukyan said.
That’s a challenger calling someone old and fragile in the same breath as calling him tough. Volkanovski hasn’t answered the chin line directly, at least not in the clips circulating this week. His response has been to keep talking about the fight like it’s already on his calendar.
Fresh Off Evloev, and Sick For It
All of this comes on the heels of Volkanovski’s win over Movsar Evloev. Evloev took the loss with some gallows humor, changing his Instagram bio to read 0-1 afterward. The other wrinkle from that night is that Volkanovski fought through a chest infection. On fight day he brushed it off: “I’m sick, but the fight would be too easy if I felt too good anyway.”
View post on X
Tsarukyan isn’t the only lightweight name in Volkanovski’s head, either. Earlier in the week he said he’d welcome a rematch with Ilia Topuria before retiring, on one condition. “If it’s gonna be for a lightweight title then yea,” he said, adding, “To get that win back would be great. I’m a competitor and I’d love to test myself against him.”
So the common thread is 155 pounds and a belt. Volkanovski doesn’t sound interested in moving up for a tune-up or a big-name fight with nothing attached. He wants gold, and Tsarukyan is the name he keeps landing on.
What’s Next
Nothing is booked. The whole plan hinges on Gaethje, and Volkanovski framed it as a fallback if Gaethje doesn’t want the Tsarukyan fight or walks away. Until Gaethje’s future is settled, this is a champion and a contender agreeing in public on a fight that doesn’t exist yet.
View post on X
My take: book it the second Gaethje gives an answer. You rarely get a featherweight champion volunteering to surrender his belt and a lightweight contender calling the matchup perfect in the same week, with neither one hedging. Tsarukyan put the chin shot on the record. Volkanovski just beat Evloev while sick and is now asking for a weight class where everyone is bigger than him. One of those two men is going to be wrong, and I want to watch them find out which. The next move belongs to Gaethje.
