{"id":337747,"date":"2025-12-10T22:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337747\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T22:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:52:07","slug":"islam-makhachev-questions-ufc-matchmaking-arman-should-have-gotten-the-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/337747\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev questions UFC matchmaking: \u2018Arman should have gotten the title shot\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Islam Makhachev knows first-hand how good Arman Tsarukyan is &#8211; and how deserving he is to be fighting for the UFC lightweight title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The UFC\u2019s 2026 campaign kicks off with a pair of title fights, as its Jan. 24 UFC 242 event is headlined by Justin Gaethje fighting Paddy Pimblett for an interim lightweight belt, with bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison defending against the returning Amanda Nunes in the co-main event. It\u2019s the Gaethje vs. Pimblett bout that has raised eyebrows, with undisputed 155-pound champion Ilia Topuria taking a personal break until April and No. 1 contender Arman Tsarukyan out of the picture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Tsarukyan was scheduled to fight Makhachev at UFC 311 this past January, but was forced to withdraw just a day before the event with a back injury. UFC CEO Dana White has said on multiple occasions he has to earn his spot again, and despite Tsarukyan scoring a dominant submission win over Dan Hooker this past November, a title shot does not appear to be in the cards for him anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L3v4TbBUNCc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Corner MMA<\/a>, Makhachev defended his would-be rival\u2019s contender credentials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cThe organization may not like it, but they make more and more fights that I don\u2019t understand,\u201d Makhachev said (Russian translation via Red Corner MMA). \u201cOf course, I think Arman should have gotten the title shot. Let\u2019s be honest, Arman is not going to fight anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cIt\u2019s Pimblett vs. Gaethje, whoever wins, he gets a shot at Topuria. Meaning one more year of layoff for Arman. It\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Though Makhachev recently reigned as lightweight champion, that title picture isn\u2019t an immediate concern of his right now. Makhachev defended the UFC\u2019s 155-pound belt four times, then moved up to welterweight to compete for that division\u2019s title, going on to defeat champion Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 in November. He holds a win over Tsarukyan from when the two fought in 2019, when Tsarukyan made his UFC debut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Makhachev remembers the long road he had to take to get to the lightweight belt\u2014a situation complicated further by Makhachev\u2019s mentor and longtime friend Khabib Nurmagomedov\u2019s two-year title reign\u2014and thinks Tsarukyan just has to wait for his time to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cAlthough I\u2019ve had the same period in my career, I had 10 fights before getting the title shot, I mean a 10-fight winning streak, so Arman should probably wait a bit and be patient,\u201d Makhachev said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev knows first-hand how good Arman Tsarukyan is &#8211; and how deserving he is to be fighting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-337747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337747","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=337747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}