However, the division\u2019s number one, Arman Tsarukyan, has been outspoken about the fact that he deserves his opportunity against Topuria, who is exploring the possibility of a Justin Gaethje fight.<\/p>\n
![\"Arman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-1827600659-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Cooper Neill\/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images<\/p>\n
He has posted videos to social media of himself chasing ducks, and claimed Pimblett should be \u2018deleted\u2019<\/a> from the UFC<\/a> rankings.<\/p>\n MMA legend backs Arman Tsarukyan as he fires shots at Ilia Topuria and the UFC<\/p>\n While this has not made him popular with the champion or other lightweight contenders, he has found supporters among legends of the fight game.<\/p>\n Henry Cejudo took to the Pound4Pound podcast to blast the organisation and \u2018El Matador\u2019 over the handling of the situation.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThey don\u2019t want to see a fight with Paddy the Baddy\u2026 He (Topuria) said he doesn\u2019t want to give Arman a chance for the belt. He\u2019d rather relinquish that. The UFC does not want to hear that.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you start thinking you\u2019re bigger than the UFC, you start to become public enemy number one.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though you are a champion and you do have two belts, you still don\u2019t hold leverage as you do.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to the champion\u2019s threat of giving up the belt, the Armenian said Ilia \u2018knows he will lose\u2019, so he is looking to take \u2018easy\u2019 fights instead.<\/p>\n Cejudo furthered his criticisms and even took a slight shot at \u2018The Baddy\u2019 for being the potential recipient of the title opportunity over Arman.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIf beating a guy like Michael Chandler, who is 7-2 in the UFC, gets you a title shot, then man, maybe Lerrone\u2019s quote of the UFC being more of an entertainment company, maybe that\u2019s what the UFC is, a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n Paddy the Baddy teases fight news soon in social media post aimed at Ilia Topuria<\/p>\n There has been no confirmation of a date for the next title defence of the lightweight division\u2019s king, but the Scouse stylist seems close to confirming some news of his own.<\/p>\n Writing in an Instagram post, he appears to be teasing fans as to his next fight.<\/p>\n Paddy wrote: \u201cJust waiting on that phone call. El Chorizo, I\u2019m coming for you.\u201d<\/p>\n While he could be trying to nudge the fighting pride of Spain into a fight, he may still have one more challenger to get through in the top 10 before being afforded the opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The next challenger for the UFC lightweight title is still up in the air. Ilia Topuria last defended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[15504,49,48,641,3262,638,15502,82,640],"class_list":["post-55123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-arman-tsarukyan","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-mma","tag-paddy-pimblett","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55123","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=55123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}