{"id":301720,"date":"2025-11-23T12:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T12:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/301720\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T12:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T12:56:08","slug":"ufc-qatar-the-morning-after-tsarukyan-pimblett-and-farcical-title-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/301720\/","title":{"rendered":"UFC Qatar, The Morning After: Tsarukyan, Pimblett, and farcical title shots"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there was any doubt beforehand, Arman Tsarukyan made it extremely clear he\u2019s the best Lightweight without a UFC title.<\/p>\n

Last night (Sat., Nov. 22, 2025), Tsarukyan beat the brakes off veteran contender Dan Hooker in the main event of UFC Qatar. An outstanding wrestler and otherworldly athlete, Tsarukyan had little trouble on the feet with \u201cThe Hangman,\u201d finding his way to the rangy striker with explosive combinations. When he took it to the floor, Tsarukyan destroyed Hooker\u2019s face with punches and elbows en route to a second-round arm triangle choke finish.<\/p>\n

Seriously, it was a mauling. Look at Hooker\u2019s face after a mere eight minutes!<\/p>\n

\"DOHA,<\/a><\/p>\n

DOHA, QATAR – NOVEMBER 22: Dan Hooker of New Zealand reacts after a submission loss against Arman Tsarukyan of Georgia in a lightweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at ABHA Arena on November 22, 2025 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLC)<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan is now riding a five-fight win streak. His most recent trio of wins includes the Hooker beating, a decision over divisional great Charles Oliveira, and a 64-second KO of Beneil Dariush. He\u2019s clearly a world-class talent at the top of his game, and yet he\u2019s still only 29 years old. It\u2019s easy to forget his youth because he\u2019s been in the UFC for six years and showed up already at an extremely high level, but we\u2019re talking about a young fighter with a lot left to give.<\/p>\n

Just like Ilia Topuria, the 28-year-old two-division champion.<\/p>\n

Despite Tsarukyan\u2019s obvious case for a title, there\u2019s a major issue of scheduling. It\u2019s an open secret that UFC is targeting Topuria to lead the big Paramount debut, scheduled for just two months from now. That\u2019s a very quick rebound for Tsarukyan, who would have to recover from his recent training camp, substantial weight cut, and train to peak again in roughly nine weeks time.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not impossible, but it is a disadvantage. If Tsarukyan does receive the next shot at Topuria, he does so on the champion\u2019s terms and gives the Spaniard an edge. Whether that detail ends up mattering is anyone\u2019s guess, but it\u2019s not exactly \u201cfair\u201d to the clearly deserving contender. This is an old tactic in the UFC playbook, a way to help the bigger star.<\/p>\n

Remember when Aljamain Sterling got smoked by Sean O\u2019Malley just three months after his five-round war with Henry Cejudo? Dana White didn\u2019t exactly break into tears at the unfairness of it all.<\/p>\n

The other option is Paddy Pimblett. \u201cThe Baddy\u201d does not deserve a title shot, particularly not when compared to Tsarukyan\u2019s impeccable resume and performances. He is, however, fresh and available with no asterisks. The English athlete is also a major star and has a history of bad blood with the champion. It\u2019s a remarkably easy fight to sell, exactly the kind of matchup UFC would love to put atop a high-profile event.<\/p>\n

The two have already faced off in the cage!<\/a><\/p>\n

Assuming Topuria does indeed end up on UFC 324 in January, his challenger will either be the undeserving \u201cBaddy\u201d or Tsarukyan with questionable preparation. Both fights would be awesome, must-watch combat sports entertainment, and they would also both be a bit silly for very different reasons.<\/p>\n

I expect we\u2019ll find out which way the cookie crumbles in the coming week or two.<\/p>\n

For complete UFC Qatar results and play-by-play, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there was any doubt beforehand, Arman Tsarukyan made it extremely clear he\u2019s the best Lightweight without a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,37644,7788],"class_list":["post-301720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-espn-fight-night","tag-ufc-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}