Paddy Pimblett doesn’t see anything special in Arman Tsarukyan‘s recent run.
Many took issue with No. 1 ranked Tsarukyan being left out of the title picture after UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria announced that he’s taking personal time off. The promotion opted to book Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) against Justin Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) for the interim title in the UFC 324 on Jan. 24 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+).
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Pimblett disagrees with the notion that Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) was snubbed.
“He got offered to fight (Mateusz) Gamrot and said no, and then took the more favorable matchup possible, Dan Hooker, who can’t grapple to save his mad life,” Pimblett said of Tsarukyan on his YouTube Channel. “He nearly guillotined him, which just shows how bad Arman’s grappling is. I was watching that thinking, ‘Wow. If I get you in a guillotine, you are going unconscious.’
“And he head butted him at the weigh-ins. He’s got good wrestling, but that’s his main thing is wrestling, and he wouldn’t be able to hold me down and just lie on top of me. He’s going on about the people I fought. He beat (Beneil) Dariush, who’s about 48. A lot of people don’t think he beat Charles (Oliveira), me included. When we watched it live, I thought Charles won, and then he fought f*cking Dan Hooker who’s, let’s be honest, sh*t. The last person I beat knocked Dan Hooker out in a round.”
Pimblett earned his shot at the title after a dominant TKO of former title challenger Michael Chandler at UFC 314 in April. “The Baddy” appeared to be the frontrunner to challenge Topuria, before the champion announced that he’ll be needing time off to deal with ongoing legal issues with his ex-wife.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Paddy Pimblett not impressed with Arman Tsarukyan’s UFC resume
