Top Lightweight Arman Tsarukyan Wagers Easy $500,000 That He’ll Beat Ilia Topuria; Unloads On Weaknesses

Arman Tsarukyan proposes $500,000 wager to Ilia Topuria after UFC champ refused no.1 contender as in the running for his gold, at all.

Top Lightweight Arman Tsarukyan Wagers Easy $500,000 That He’ll Beat Ilia Topuria; Unloads On Weaknesses

Arman Tsarukyan places a bet to UFC Champ Ilia Topuria (Source: X)

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Top UFC 155-pounder and rich kid on the block, Arman Tsarukyan, is ready to wager a lot to get his title shot! What he is saying at the moment is that the newly crowned divisional champ Ilia Topuria would be a very easy challenge for him. Big challenges plus bigger bills, and the Armenian wants to end the year with a belt around him.

That’s too bad because Ilia Topuria told the NELK Boys that he wasn’t even veering towards this high-profile fight as he does not find ‘Ahalkalakets’ a trustworthy option. Arman Tsarukyan had placed himself on top of the division with back-to-back wins over Charles Oliveira and the perennial Beneil Dariush.

However, he pulled out of the UFC 311 PPV weigh-ins when his title shot was secured. Renato Moicano instead saved the top spot, challenging 155-pound champ Islam Makhachev. ‘El Matador’, who relinquished his 145-pound momentum and moved up, said he and many others also go through the same horrendous weight cuts and back pain.

Hence, he won’t entertain the No.2-ranked lightweight on divisional listings and the right to challenge for gold until he gets one more win in the bag. By all reports, there is no solid guarantee that this fight will happen. But Tsarukyan is willing to spice it up with a bait.

I can put like half million [on line] if he beat me, …[he won’t] If I beat him, he’s gonna give me a half a million. If he wants to make that, I’m down. We can shake hands, fight…

Arman Tsarukyan on Overdogs Podcast with Mike Perry (@Overdogspod)

For one, a nod from champ Topuria works in favor of Tsarukyan. He weighed in as a backup fighter and made championship weight (155lbs) for the UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira PPV main event. However, UFC CEO Dana White later said his second-stitch role means he’s just beginning to come back into good graces. As such, it doesn’t merit a title shot right off, then and there.

So a dynamic with Topuria could keep him in the conversation long enough so that when the time comes, he remains the main option for a title shot. Ask Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski, and they’d say Topuria himself pulled that very tactic before his title campaign.

Secondly, the Team ATT fighter is the ward of an immensely rich construction magnate and has some dough to spare. Hence, he touts he’s just better on a skill-to-skill level. This week alone, Tsarukyan took inspiration from ONE FC’s Anatoly Malykhin and others, and made a skit of a duck/too ‘chicken’ to fight Topuria running away.

The Armenian lightweight doubled down that the Spanish fighter was doing so because he was afraid of his freestyle wrestling prowess and knows that he’s beatable. One facet that is bolstering Tsarukyan’s confidence as well is others saying he deserves it, too.

UFC analyst bills Arman Tsarukyan deserving of next title shot

Ilia Topuria shook up the world at UFC 317 by capturing the vacant lightweight title. It’s another thing if it were Oliveira who won it. It’s a whole other thing with the Spaniard who drives up the bargain for a fight, with pre-fight antics and banter. Topuria even preemptively challenged that he’d defeat Oliveira and whoever else that comes as his title defenses.

Arman Tsarukyan tagged as deserving of title shot next
Arman Tsarukyan tagged as deserving of title shot next (Source: X)

The race for Topuria’s 155-pound undisputed title was a trifecta between three fighters, One was Tsarukyan, who lost out on his promise of gold, No.5-ranked 155-pounder Justin Gaethje, and new blood (ranked #9) Paddy Pimblett. However, after UFC 318, Topuria’s rival Max Holloway stirred a storm and made a case for top contender status.

‘Blessed’ logically merits the conversation. Unlike the others, his last two fights at 155 pounds were over a previous top contender and a ranked title challenger. This is paramount in making the case up the pecking order.

Meanwhile, Gaethje too believes he deserves his dues, having snagged 3/4 last fights. UFC analyst and former two-weight champ Daniel Cormier thinks it should be Arman Tsarukyan:

I believe, all things considered, merit, warranted, I think [it] probably should be Arman, …I think Arman Tsarukyan probably should be the guy that gets the title fight. I just don’t know if the champion is willing to fight him [though]…right now.

Daniel Cormier said on his Official YT Channel

While behind in the order, Pimblett would be the biggest pay-per-view draw in this title conversation, given their rivalry. He even had a charged face-off with Topuria right after UFC 317. Right now, it’s quite up in the air who’ll be the first defense, and each man has made their case why it should be them.

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