{"id":357283,"date":"2025-12-19T01:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357283\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T01:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:50:07","slug":"arman-tsarukyan-open-to-gaethje-pimblett-backup-at-ufc-324","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357283\/","title":{"rendered":"Arman Tsarukyan open to Gaethje\u2013Pimblett backup at UFC 324"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 1-ranked<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Arman Tsarukyan won\u2019t be fighting for the interim 155-pound title<\/a> next month at UFC 324<\/a> inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas \u2014 but that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s completely out of the picture.<\/p>\n

If either Justin Gaethje or Paddy Pimblett is forced out of their interim title bout, Tsarukyan says he\u2019s more than willing to step in on short notice.<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan addressed the situation while speaking with reporters following his grappling match in Russia yesterday (watch highlights<\/a>), where he was asked if he had a preference between Gaethje or Pimblett should the call come.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, they are both punching bags,\u201d Tsarukyan said bluntly. \u201cPunching bags you still have to prepare for like a title fight, because anything can happen. But I can see they\u2019re not on my level. That\u2019s why I\u2019m not fighting this time. If I were weaker, I would definitely be there fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan made it clear he has no intention of letting his conditioning slip in case the UFC needs him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf any of them gets injured, I will take the fight. I\u2019m going to stay in shape,\u201d he added. \u201cThe UFC didn\u2019t announce a backup fighter for this fight, but anything is possible. If they call me a week or even two or three weeks before, I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Tsarukyan appears to be boxed out of the immediate title picture. Gaethje and Pimblett are expected to unify the Lightweight belt against champion Ilia Topuria sometime in 2026, assuming Topuria\u2019s current absence \u2014 due to personal matters<\/a> \u2014 doesn\u2019t extend longer than expected.<\/p>\n

That uncertainty could still open a door. If Topuria remains sidelined, Tsarukyan could find himself right back in the mix for an interim title defense \u2014 even if UFC CEO Dana White continues to insist the Armenian contender must \u201cwork his way back<\/a>\u201d to a shot at gold.<\/p>\n

That path likely means fewer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu appearances and more cage fighting, especially after Tsarukyan\u2019s most recent Octagon outing ended in a dominant second-round stoppage of Dan Hooker (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 1-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight Arman Tsarukyan won\u2019t be fighting for the interim 155-pound title next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,14855],"class_list":["post-357283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}