Arman Tsarukyan sends a message to the lightweight champion.
Following his impressive 64 second knockout of number 4 ranked lightweight Beneil Dariush in Austin Texas, Tsarukyan called out Islam Makhachev. Coming into this fight, the Armenian was ranked 8th in the world and following this impressive win, this would propel him into the prestige top 5 of the division. This will bring him significantly closer towards a rematch to Makhachev. During his post fight interview, “Ahalkalakets” promised the rematch will go much differently than the first time around.
“I was 22 years old [when I first fought Makhachev],” Tsarukyan said. “Now I’m 27. I got improved. The next fight is going to be a different one. I’m going to knock him out.”
Arman Tsarukyan Could Be Waiting in Line for the Shot
The first meeting the two foes happened in april of 2019. Islam Makhachev scored the unanimous decision win. However, it seemed late in the third round, the tides were starting to turn towards Tsarukyan way. During that post fight press conference, he promised it the fight was a five rounder, that the Armenian would get the edge.
Meanwhile, Islam Makhachev is on a 13 fight winning streak. He is also coming off a win for the title over Charles Oliveira and back to back defence wins over featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski. Tsarukyan has won his 8 out of his last 9 fights and could very well be on the cusp for a title shot. Unfortunately there is a little bit of a log jammed. Oliveira seems like the next opponent for the champion as he was suppose to be Makhachev previous opponent but was forced to pull out due to injury. Justin Gaethje is also up for the title show after winning the BMF belt. This is a good problem to have in the lightweight division. For awhile it was the same lockjam of the same challengers, it always refreshing seeing a new challenger for the belt.
Quotes taken from lowkickmma.
How do you think this rematch would play out? Did Tsarukyan impressed you enough to jump the queue? Let us know in the comments.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
