Arman Tsarukyan Ready to Fight Ilia Topuria in January “I don’t want to wait”
UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan has made it clear that he would be ready to turn around and fight Ilia Topuria on UFC’s debut Paramount card in January if he’s able to defeat Dan Hooker this weekend.
On Saturday night, Arman Tsarukyan will go head to head with Dan Hooker in the main event of UFC Qatar. It’s a fight that has been brewing for a while now, and while Arman is the clear favorite, counting out Hooker has been a mistake that many have made in the past. Tsarukyan knows that if he wins, and is able to do so convincingly, he could well set himself up for a world title opportunity against Ilia Topuria.
Right now, Ilia Topuria does not have a fight booked. He has made it clear that he isn’t the biggest fan of Arman Tsarukyan, with Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett seemingly being ahead of Arman in the pecking order. The strange thing, though, is that we are within two months of the aforementioned Paramount card, and we haven’t really heard much from the UFC when it comes to actual fight announcements.
In a recent interview, Arman Tsarukyan suggested that he would be willing to turn around on short notice and face Topuria if the opportunity presented itself.
Arman Tsarukyan calls his Ilia Topuria shot
“People assume Ilia will fight in January at Paramount, maybe defending in the first numbered card. But nothing has been announced yet. If I perform well on Saturday and UFC asks me, ‘Can you fight in January?’ I’ll take that fight right away. I don’t want to wait.”
If Arman is serious about this, he had better be prepared – because given what we know about Ilia, it certainly isn’t going to be an easy task – far from it, in fact.
