Arman Tsarukyan knows why Paddy Pimblett is set to fight for a title at UFC 324.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Baddy\u201d takes on Justin Gaethje in the Jan. 24 main event, with an interim lightweight title on the line, and Tsarukyan believes the matchup is a clear case of UFC officials wanting to push Pimblett as a star. Tsarukyan is currently the No. 1 contender at 155 pounds, but was seemingly passed over in favor of Gaethje vs. Pimblett, with the winner of that fight expected to face undisputed champion Ilia Topuria when he returns from a personal hiatus.<\/p>\n
Following his win over Lance Palmer at RAF 5 in Sunrise, Fla., Tsarukyan spoke to reporters backstage and offered his theory on why Pimblett is fighting for a championship instead of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows, Paddy Pimblett, they want to make him a champion because it\u2019s his chance to be a champion,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cThey know if they\u2019re going to put me against him, he\u2019s going to lose and the star is going to be gone. Gaethje is easy money for him. He\u2019s old, he has maybe one or two fights left. So that\u2019s why they give him interim title because he\u2019s not going to be a real champion, because there\u2019s Ilia Topuria and I never think he can beat Ilia Topuria.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsarukyan and Pimblett have made their disdain for one another clear, with the two frequently taking shots at each other in interviews. The feud has reached the point where Pimblett said in a recent interview he hoped Tsarukyan would suffer an injury in his RAF match.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, he wants me to get hurt because I\u2019m not going to fight him,\u201d Tsarukyan said when asked about the comment. \u201cI\u2019m a nightmare for him and he knows that if we\u2019re going to fight, he\u2019s going to lose. He\u2019s going to try not to fight me his whole life. I hope that Justin Gaethje is going to knock him out and send him back to England and he can eat his\u2014I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s eating there\u2014chicken or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
With UFC 324 two weeks away, Tsarukyan is holding out hope that he gets the call should Gaethje or Pimblett be unable to compete. His most recent octagon appearance this past November saw him score a dominant submission win over Dan Hooker to hold on to his spot at the front of the contender line.<\/p>\n
Outside of that fight, Tsarukyan has stayed busy competing in various grappling competitions, and he\u2019s confident that if he\u2019s needed as a replacement for the Jan. 24 main event, he will be ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cI\u2019m in shape. If UFC needs me, I\u2019ll jump in and fight. I hope maybe something happens so I\u2019ll go there, stay there, and even before one day if they say, \u2018You\u2019ve got to cut your weight and fight,\u2019 I\u2019ll do that. Because I train every day, I work so hard, and I believe in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Tsarukyan who was first to book a UFC championship fight when he was scheduled to fight Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 311 this past January. Unfortunately for Tsarukyan, a back injury forced him out of the contest a day before fight night, and he believes the matchmakers have been reluctant to trust him ever since.<\/p>\n
Tsarukyan didn\u2019t help his case when he headbutted Hooker in a faceoff ahead of their UFC Qatar clash, potentially endangering that fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just my guess, I\u2019m seeing from interviews, what my manager says to me, from that I decided because of that, I think,\u201d Tsarukyan said as to why Dana White and company might have it in for him. \u201cIn person, I didn\u2019t talk to Dana or [UFC executive] Hunter [Campbell] about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to go to Vegas and talk to them,\u201d Tsarukyan added. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what they say, but it\u2019s probably the headbutt, pull out from the title fight, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arman Tsarukyan knows why Paddy Pimblett is set to fight for a title at UFC 324. \u201cThe Baddy\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-402884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402884","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=402884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}