Michael Bisping thinks Arman Tsarukyan‘s road to gold could end up being even longer.
Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) has been pushed aside from the lightweight title picture after withdrawing from his fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311, then head butting opponent Dan Hooker during the UFC Fight Night 265 weigh-in faceoff.
Advertisement
Interim champion Justin Gaethje is expected to be unify his belt with lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, but Bisping sees two other contenders in play. When Max Holloway (27-8 MMA, 23-8 UFC) defends his BMF title against Charles Oliveira (36-11 MMA, 24-11 UFC) in the UFC 326 headliner on March 7, Bisping thinks the winner could be next.
“Will they leapfrog Arman Tsarukyan?” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Arman Tsarukyan, as we know, is out there, he’s talking, he’s pissed off, he’s the rightful No. 1 contender, and all the rest of it. He’s not. There’s an interim champion. That fight needs to happen. But if Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway go out there and do something crazy, if we get Charles Oliveira finishing Max Holloway in sensational fashion, jumping over the octagon, running into the crowd like Jose Aldo in Rio de Janeiro, or like Charles Oliveira last time, in October in Rio de Janeiro?
“If something like that happens and the fans want it, guess what? Ilia Topuria or Justin Gaethje, they would welcome it. Being the BMF champ as well, there would be a potential that you would have the undisputed belt and the BMF belt both on the line in the same fight. Would that gazump Arman Tsarukyan? I don’t know.”
Tsarukyan called out Topuria after running through Dan Hooker this past November, and has since been keeping himself busy by participating in numerous grappling matches. He meets Georgio Poullas in the RAF 6 co-main event, which takes place Saturday at Mullett Arena in Tempe, Ariz.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC analyst: Tsarukyan can be leapfrogged by Holloway-Oliveira winner
