Arman Tsarukyan has been the king of the side quests as he awaits his return to the octagon — which he expects to happen this fall with UFC gold on the line.
Tsarukyan, who just picked up a lopsided tech fall win over Mugzy in the opening bout of RAF 9 this past weekend in Dallas, released a vlog on his YouTube channel from UFC 328 fight week. Speaking with Mike Hermalyn, president, VIP of Fanatics, Tsarukyan said that his next fight is set, it will be for a championship, but he’s just waiting on an opponent.
“My next fight is the title fight, which is probably [in] September, ” Tsarukyan said. “[It will likely happen in] L.A.
“But I’m a backup for the White House, too. If someone pulled out, gets hurt, [I’m in].”
Speaking with MMA Fighting at the RAF 9 pre-fight press conference, Tsarukyan said as the UFC White House backup for the Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje headliner, he won’t be weighing in. He’d be more of an in case of emergency fighter, as Tsarukyan is already set to compete at RAF 10 against former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson.
While looking at a box of UFC cards, Tsarukyan also said that BMF champ Charles Oliveira is one of the options on the table. It doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be fighting for Oliveira’s title, but should Topuria beat Gaethje on June 14, many believe “El Matador” will move up to welterweight for a showdown with Islam Makhachev.
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