Arman Tsarukyan won’t let Justin Gaethje skip the line and get the coveted No. 1 contender spot away from him. Despite Islam Makhachev sharing his plan to fight the No. 2-ranked fighter in June, Tsarukyan said he’s the one the champ will face in the said month after delivering his KO to Charles Oliveira at UFC 300.
Makhachev recently shared his timeline plan for his next three fights, and one of the things that’ll catch anyone’s attention is the detail involving Gaethje. The UFC originally promised Oliveira the No. 1 contender spot, but Arman Tsarukyan entered the title conversation after beating Beneil Dariush via KO. However, Makhachev is not interested in rematches and instead wants to fight Gaethje. With this, the pound-for-pound king reiterated this in his post, saying he’ll meet Gaethje on June 8 for a UFC PPV event and then fight the winner of the Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan fight in November.
The Armenian-Russian doesn’t agree with the idea.
In his latest interview with Daniel Cormier, the 27-year-old reiterated the UFC’s words promising him and Oliveira the No. 1 contender right. And for Tsarukyan, this should be honored, even by Gaethje.
“I think he should wait (for) us, because we are going to be contender No. 1,” Tsarukyan said. “Hopefully, they’re not going to book that fight for the summer and wait (for) us. After, when I win, I’m going to fight with Islam, and then we can talk about Gaethje. I feel like we are next, and Gaethje has to wait (for) us. Gathje has to wait (until) October. OK, we’re going to fight for the title in the summer.”
For Tsarukyan, he is certain that he’ll be the one claiming the title shot. Despite Oliveira being in the higher rank and being a veteran fighter of the UFC, the aggressive young fighter expects to deliver a KO win to the opponent when they meet at UFC 300.
“To choke someone is so difficult, especially when I train with high-level fighters,” Tsarukyan said. “To choke them, you’ve got to beat them for 15-20 minutes, and then when he gets tired, you can finish. First two rounds, it’s almost impossible to choke high-level fighters. … I believe that I can do that in the first round, and I want to show everybody I’m the best here. My goal is to go there and knock him out in the first round to show everybody I deserve that title fight.”
