Arman Tsarukyan has a message for Justin Gaethje: I\u2019m next.<\/p>\n
On Saturday night, Tsarukyan scored arguably the biggest win of his career, knocking out Mauricio Ruffy in the co-main event of UFC 331 in Los Angeles. Viewed by many as a title eliminator bout, lightweight champion Justin Gaethje sat cageside for the fight, and kicking off his post-fight press conference afterward, Tsarukyan had a simple message for the champ.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe already knows his message; he\u2019s fighting me next,\u201d Tsarukyan told reporters.<\/p>\n
Tsarukyan is currently on a six-fight win streak at lightweight and was supposed to challenge Islam Makhachev for the title last year, but a last-minute withdrawal from the event, plus other incidents, put Tsarukyan in the doghouse with the UFC. As such, Tsarukyan felt extra pressure to deliver on Saturday to ensure his title shot, and he believes he did just that.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery fight is pressure for me,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a joke because I want to be UFC champion. Every fight for me is so important. This fight is important too, especially finish and show the great performance. When I\u2019m going to talk to UFC, the bosses are not going to say, \u2018It was a boring decision, and you want to fight for the title.\u2019 I knocked him out in the first round, and they can see the crowd, people, and my ability in the cage. \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting a long time,\u201d Tsarukyan added later. \u201cI need a title fight, and today I proved it again. This is the third time I\u2019m fighting for the No. 1 contender, and third year. After this fight, hopefully I\u2019m fighting for the title.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsarukyan certainly believes he will be, saying he spoke with Dana White and the UFC after the win. But whether or not he\u2019ll be fighting Gaethje is another question entirely, and one that Tsarukyan isn\u2019t sure he knows the answer to because he believes Gaethje has no interest in fighting him.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustin Gaethje, he never tells my name,\u201d Tsarukyan said. \u201cHe\u2019s scared. He wanted Ruffy to knock me out. It means he\u2019s trying to avoid me, and he\u2019s going to try to call out Ilia Topuria or tell [the UFC], \u2018I want $15 million for Arman Tsarukyan or I\u2019m retired.\u2019 He\u2019s going to play around bullshit game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut UFC \u2014 either he\u2019s going to fight me, or he\u2019s going to give the title opportunity for the young guys. We have a lot of contenders right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsarukyan added that if Gaethje does opt to retire instead of fighting him, he wouldn\u2019t be upset by that; he simply wants his opportunity to become champion. And when it comes to that, he\u2019s not fussy. Tsarukyan says he\u2019ll be ready whenever the UFC wants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no injuries. So I need one-week vacation, and then I can start training again,\u201d Tsarukyan said when asked about when he\u2019d like to fight for the title. \u201cProbably middle of December, end of December. If there is a big card at end of December or middle December, so I\u2019ll be ready. Right now, I can\u2019t [say] \u2018I want to fight in two months, I want to fight in three months.\u2019 Whatever they tell me, I\u2019ll be there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arman Tsarukyan has a message for Justin Gaethje: I\u2019m next. On Saturday night, Tsarukyan scored arguably the biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":903049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":["post-903048","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","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903048","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=903048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}