Conor McGregor has faced a mountain of criticism after his comeback to the UFC following a five year layoff ended with a devastating knee injury just 66 seconds into the fight.<\/p>\n
Ever since UFC 329 ended, McGregor has stated rather emphatically that he plans to compete again, although there are more than a few skeptics doubting that he\u2019ll ever make another return to action. For his part, top ranked UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan obviously understands McGregor\u2019s desire but he just doesn\u2019t see how or why the former two-division UFC champion would fight again.<\/p>\n
Add to that, Tsarukyan actually praised McGregor for everything he\u2019s already accomplished in the sport so a comeback at this stage just doesn\u2019t make much sense to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cConor, unfortunately he got [an] injury during the fight or maybe before the fight and he couldn\u2019t perform very well,\u201d Tsarukyan told MMA Fighting ahead of RAF 11. \u201cI feel like Conor is done. He\u2019s got to just focus on his business. He did a lot for this sport, for the UFC especially, and he\u2019s like a GOAT in our sport. Because of him, a lot of people are watching the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe changed the game but time to leave. Or UFC got to give him easy fights, not like Holloway or someone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, McGregor already said he wants a third fight with Holloway when he\u2019s recovered from the upcoming surgery on his knee but there\u2019s no telling if or when that might happen.<\/p>\n
Whether McGregor ever fights again or not really doesn\u2019t affect Tsarukyan because he\u2019s not chasing that kind of matchup but rather he\u2019s steadfast in his pursuit to become UFC lightweight champion.<\/p>\n
By all accounts, Tsarukyan should be considered the No. 1 contender at 155 pounds but he\u2019s yet to compete in a title fight in the UFC. In his only opportunity, Tsarukyan suffered a freak fight week injury that knocked him out of a scheduled bout against then champion Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n
But with Justin Gaethje now reigning over the division, Tsarukyan would love the chance to challenge for that belt, although it doesn\u2019t sound like that\u2019s what the UFC has planned for him next.<\/p>\n
\u201cUFC\u2019s got to give me a fight,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m flying to Vegas and they have a date, I have a name, we\u2019ve just go to confirm on Monday. I\u2019m ready to rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. It\u2019s going to be a good fight, exciting fight and the best place to fight for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsarukyan wouldn\u2019t tease his potential opponent or when he\u2019ll fight again but it appears his time away from the UFC is about to come to an end.<\/p>\n
Whether the title shot is next or not, Tsarukyan made it clear that remains his sole objective in the UFC and he plans on wrapping gold around his waist \u2014 hopefully sooner than later.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be a champion at 155 and I want to defend that belt as much as possible,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cMy goal is to be the best ever lightweight. I\u2019m not looking to go up or down. I feel like I can be the best, I just don\u2019t want to be a UFC champion. I want to be the best UFC champion in lightweight division ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor has faced a mountain of criticism after his comeback to the UFC following a five year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":["post-808344","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","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808344","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=808344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}