UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria is still eyeing a fight with Arman Tsarukyan.
Tsarukyan was snubbed out of the interim lightweight title bout when the promotion opted to book Justin Gaethje against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324. Gaethje won the fight and will now unify his interim belt with Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in the UFC Freedom 250 headliner on June 14.
Advertisement
Topuria expects his next title defense to come against Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC), who has been patiently waiting for his opportunity. Tsarukyan’s past three wins have come over Beneil Dariush, former champ Charles Oliveira, and most recently Dan Hooker at UFC Fight Night 265.
“The fight with Arman is going to be a good fight,” Topuria said in an interview with DeepCut. “The thing is that they used to take a lot of confidence because they fight with fighters that – his last fight was against Dan Hooker. He has, I don’t know, 20 losses in his professional career. It’s like, bro, you never, ever, like forget about it, never ever in your entire life you faced someone like me.”
Tsarukyan has kept himself busy by winning numerous grappling matches. However, Topuria is confident that even Tsarukyan’s elite ground game won’t be enough against him.
“It’s like, I’m going to embarrass you in front of everyone,” Topuria said. “Because with him, he thinks that he’s tough, he thinks that like his wrestling is I don’t know what. Like, he feels that he’s an Olympic champion. Anyway, if he’s the best in the world in wrestling, when it comes to the octagon, bro, I’m the king. In there, I’m the king. I do with you whatever I want to f*cking do. And I told him like I’m going to break his jaw in the first round.
Advertisement
“He’s going to try to take me down since the beginning of the fight and when he’s going to realize that, bro, it’s not that easy. It’s not that easy to take these legs and take me down, especially to control me on the ground. You crazy? And then he’s going to start (to) panic. He’s going to be panicked and then when I break his jaw, bam. In front of all his crowd, all his people, his family, who gives a f*ck. Bam!”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC champion Ilia Topuria vows to ’embarrass’ Arman Tsarukyan
