Arman Tsarukyan would like to set the record straight.
Yes, the UFC’s top lightweight contender turned down a short-notice opportunity to face Islam Makhachev with championship gold on the line next month at Prudential Center.
Yes, Tsarukyan had turned down a previous opportunity to face him and avenge a loss in his 2019 UFC debut to the current champion, a unanimous decision for Makhachev that garnered Fight of the Night recognition.
No, says the Armenian-Russian, he did not shy away from “three or four” chances at the rematch, as Makhachev told The Post last month.
He believed he was giving away too much of an edge to the champion with a seven-week turnaround from his most recent victorious outing when he was offered the chance immediately after UFC 300 on April 13.
“No, it was one time,” Tsarukyan said during a recent video call with The Post.
Tsarukyan (22-3, 14 finishes), whose competitive, split decision victory over former champion Charles Oliveira last month gave him the inside track to vie for the 155-pound belt, explained that he was scheduled to face Joel Alvarez in February 2022 on the undercard of an event headlined by Makhachev and Beneil Dariush.
When Dariush pulled out of the fight due to injury, the UFC offered Tsarukyan the chance to step in on short notice to face Makhachev a second time.
But Tsarukyan did not like the timing of the opportunity against the southpaw Makhachev after preparing for Alvarez, an orthodox-stance fighter, and Tsarukyan ended up topping the Spaniard via TKO in the originally planned contest.
“They’re completely different fighters,” Tsarukyan said of Makhachev and Alvarez. “What do you want from me? ‘Oh, we’re gonna pay good money, this, that.’ I said, ‘I’m not ready for this guy because my whole training camp was orthodox guys. … [That] was first time, and second time [turning down a fight against Makhachev], it was this time. That’s it.”
Tsarukyan took issue with the exaggeration when he caught wind of Makhachev’s comments, especially because he is so dead-set on fighting for the championship that he is willing to wait as long as it takes to get his shot at UFC gold after Makhachev defends his crown on June 1 in New Jersey against Dustin Poirier.
That could come as soon as October, when the UFC returns to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where Makhachev has competed each October for three years running.
If, however, Poirier finally wins the undisputed lightweight title that has long eluded him and for which he has twice come up short, a rematch between the two Newark headliners could force Tsarukyan into a longer-than-hoped holding pattern.
And hold, he shall.
“I’m gonna wait for my title fight,” Tsarukyan said, without hesitation, of how he would handle such a scenario. “I know UFC is gonna give me that chance because they’re not bulls–t; they’re gonna do real fight.”
Tsarukyan has time on his side, a luxury that’s rare at the top of a 155-pound weight class that’s traditionally viewed as one of the deepest in all of MMA.
At 27 years old, Tsarukyan is the only man among the top 11 contenders in the UFC’s rankings under age 30; Makhachev is 32.
Being so young relative to his peers in the division emboldens Tsarukyan, who turns 28 in October, with the belief that a championship run is inevitable, and he expects it to be a record-setting run, at that.
“I’m gonna be the longest champion in the [155-pound] division,” said Tsarukyan, who was born in the Republic of Georgia to Armenian parents but was raised and resides in Russia. “If I’m gonna be champion [at] 27, I guess I’m gonna retire [at], like, 33 years old [or] 34 years old. I want to be one of the best [155-pound] fighters in the world [ever], so I want to break all the records. And I think I can do that because I have time. Everybody is very old in my division.”