Dana White has issued an update on Arman Tsarukyan’s title shot against Islam Makhachev – and it’s not good news for the No 1 contender.
Tsarukyan suffered a back injury one day before UFC 311, scuppering his long-awaited rematch with Makhachev, who holds the lightweight title. Renato Moicano was drafted in for Tsarukyan, ultimately suffering a first-round submission loss to Makhachev.
Tsarukyan will have hoped that his rematch with Makhachev – who outpointed the Armenian-Russian in 2019 – would simply be rescheduled for later this year, but that does not look likely right now.
UFC president White was asked about the match-up after UFC 311 on Saturday (18 January), and said: “[Tsarukyan] is not getting a title shot. That means he’s going to have to fight his way back to the title.
“He’s going back to the drawing board. I don’t want anybody to ever fight hurt ever, we’ve been in these positions before, [but]…
“Went down there with the doctor, went down there with Heather [Linden] from the [UFC Performance Institute] … and you miss opportunities sometimes, and he did. So, we’ll see how this plays out for him next year.
“I have no idea [if he could have fought]. I don’t know that, only he knows that.”
Surprisingly, Tsarukyan agreed with White’s suggestion that the 28-year-old must prove himself worthy of a title shot again.
“I agree with Dana White,” Tsarukyan tweeted. “Once my back heals, I’ll be ready to prove I’m the true No 1 contender by taking on anyone they put in front of me! [Charles Oliveira] in a five rounder makes [the] most sense.”
In Tsarukyan’s most-recent fight, he won a narrow decision against former champion Oliveira in April. That result extended Tsarukyan’s win streak to four in a row, while Oliveira bounced back in November by outpointing Michael Chandler.
Oliveira was stripped of the lightweight belt in May 2022, after missing weight before a planned title defence against Justin Gaethje. The next night, Oliveira submitted Gaethje, before losing a vacant-title fight with Makhachev that October. Russian Makhachev submitted Oliveira, and a rematch was due to take place in October 2023, but the Brazilian suffered a cut that ruled him out of the bout.
As such, Makhachev vs Oliveira 2 has long been on the cards. Some fans feel the UFC should book that fight next, or Tsarukuyan vs Oliveira 2 in a No 1 contender’s bout.
