during a live stream with Adin Ross<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve already had my toughest challenges.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t like to say who he fought, because there\u2019s not an easy fight in the UFC. Everyone is a tough opponent. That\u2019s one of the reasons why they\u2019re fighting in the biggest promotion in the world. But he lost to Islam [Makhachev]. He lost to [Mateusz] Gamrot. He got knocked out in the beginning of his career. And he doesn\u2019t really have the ability to finish the fight. He only finishes the fights when his opponent gets tired, and he just goes on the ground and does the ground and pound and all that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut if he faced someone who really has that preparation, has that cardio, he doesn\u2019t get scared if he goes to the ground, he\u2019s going to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
10-2 in the UFC, Tsarukyan is currently on a five-fight winning streak and was set to rematch Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title in January 2025 before a last-minute injury forced him out of UFC 311. After that, he weighed in as the backup fighter for Topuria\u2019s vacant title bout with Charles Oliveira, and then submitted Dan Hooker in November at UFC Qatar. On top of that, Tsarukyan has been flexing his muscles in other disciplines, collecting grappling accolades while waiting for his title opportunity.<\/p>\n
But Topuria is not impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cArman, easy. Because he will panic,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cWith me, he will panic. What\u2019s he going to do? I always used to say, when I\u2019m in training camp, I know how it feels when you feel pain. I know how it feels when you feel tired. I know how it feels when you feel like you can\u2019t do more, and you keep doing it. I know about myself that there\u2019s not a situation that I\u2019m going to give up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when I walk inside the octagon, my opponents should know that they\u2019re going to have a badass motherf*cker in front who doesn\u2019t know how to give up. That\u2019s never going to happen. You\u2019re going to have to kill me. And you know what, I love my life, and I\u2019m not ready to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
All that being said, Topuria isn\u2019t opposed to fighting Tsarukyan. Ultimately, if that\u2019s the fight the UFC wants, \u201cEl Matador\u201d is happy to oblige.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never call the UFC and tell them who you want to fight or where you want to fight,\u201d Topuria said. \u201cSo, if they call me and tell me they want me to fight with Arman, no f*cking problem. I fought with so many tough opponents. And you think I don\u2019t want to fight Arman? I don\u2019t care. If they give me that fight, I\u2019m fighting him. No problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustin, Arman, I don\u2019t care. Both of them, same night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria is not losing sleep over Arman Tsarukyan. Later this year, Topuria is expected to defend his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-506488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506488","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=506488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}