The UFC lightweight title saga continues with there still uncertainty over who will fight Ilia Topuria for the strap next.
Last month in the UFC 317 main event, Ilia Topuria became the lightweight champion after putting Charles Oliveira to sleep in the first round of their vacant title fight.
And immediately after his win, a lightweight saga was ignited when soaring lightweight contender Paddy Pimblett stormed into the cage for an impromptu face off.
Despite that, UFC boss Dana White revealed following the event that he wasn’t happy with the face off as he doesn’t think Pimblett will be next to fight for the title.
However, although there are several lightweight contenders who feel they are deserving of the lightweight title shot, including Arman Tsarukyan and Justin Gaethje, it is still unclear who will actually be picked as the next contender.
Arman Tsarukyan claims Justin Gaethje must fight him before fighting for the title
It is fair to say that the 155lb division is in somewhat of a mess at the top right now. White seemingly shut down Gaethje as the next title challenger after he urged him to retire following his ‘whacky’ title ultimatum.
Not only did he shut down ‘The Highlight’ but he also told Tsarukyan that he still has some ways to go before he earns another shot at fighting for the title, despite the fact that he weighed in as the backup for UFC 317.
Despite that, ‘El Matador’ recently revealed who he thinks his first title defense will be against, claiming that the UFC will push for Gaethje to be the next challenger.
‘Ahalkalakets’ is obviously not a fan of that idea, though, and has stated that ‘The Highlight’ must get through him before he fights the Spaniard.
“Of course I’d like to fight Islam (Makhachev) if I had the choice but right now, (I’d like) a fight with Gaethje,” Tsarukyan said on Out Cold with Arman Tsarukyan.
“He just beat number 11 or 12 in (Rafael) Fiziev, he doesn’t deserve the title fight, that’s 100%, he lost to (Max) Holloway, he beat Fiziev, Fiziev knew about the fight on five days and he barely won a decision… It’s not fair, he’s got to beat me before he deserves to fight for the title,” Tsarukyan continued.
Topuria recently claimed he would rather vacate the title than fight Tsarukyan
The Spanish champion recently caused uproar when he claimed that he would rather vacate his lightweight title than fight Tsarukyan.
Since pulling out of his UFC 311 title fight against Islam Makhachev earlier this year, the Armenian hasn’t fought once, which is seemingly affecting his chances of fighting for the title.
And despite wanting to fight Gaethje next, it is extremely unlikely as it would leave Topuria with no clear contender to fight.