Arman Tsarukyan has revealed that he could face Islam Makhachev at UFC 310 in December.
The rising lightweight contender has been out of the cage since a bout with Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 in April. That night, Arman Tsarukyan faced the former champion in the biggest test of his career to date. Despite some struggles, the Armenian scored a split-decision victory over ‘Do Bronx’, in the process, earning a rematch with Islam Makhachev.
Arman Tsarukyan faced the future lightweight champion in his promotional debut back in April 2019. The young prospect stepped up on short notice to face Islam Makhachev but found some success. However, Tsarukyan still left the cage with a unanimous decision defeat. Five years later, the two lightweights hoped to run it back at UFC 308 in October.
However, due to Islam Makhachev suffering an injury, the bout was postponed. Instead, Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway will go down in Abu Dhabi. Due to the champion’s injury, Arman Tsaruykan stated that the UFC could create an interim title. However, it seems that the lightweight could be back in the cage as soon as December.
Arman Tsarukyan reveals Islam Makhachev rematch is in the works for UFC 310
Arman Tsarukyan himself revealed the information in an interview with Red Corner MMA. There, the lightweight revealed that he’s currently in talks to fight Islam Makhachev in December at UFC 310. However, if the champion is not ready to roll by the spring, the promotion could still make an interim title.
“[The fight with Islam] was supposed to take place in October.” Arman Tsarukyan stated in the interview. “But they have put it off. Now it’s being negotiated for December… It depends on when Islam is coming back, if he needs a surgery and he returns next spring then they will put an interim title on the line.”
For what it’s worth, there have already been several fighters linked to the UFC 310 main event. Conor McGregor has repeatedly called for the chance to face Michael Chandler at the event. Furthermore, Belal Muhammad has also revealed plans to fight in December, against either Kamaru Usman or Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan wants to fight in December.
‘No Mercy’ hasn’t competed since his return to the cage in March. Ending a yearlong hiatus, the former bantamweight champion faced the rising Song Yadong. Despite the Chinese fighter having a lot of momentum heading in, Petr Yan escaped UFC 299 with a unanimous decision victory.
Throwing the bat signal to NDA
lol, taking Conor’s much desired main event and giving it to his arch nemesis’ protege is a sick chess move by UFC
This is a fun fight. Make it happen.
It’s kind of boring Islam has to fight at LW against guys he’s already beat because Belal slid in for a camp with the team and sucked up to them. Arman is just a lesser version of Islam, and Islam mopped the floor with Belal when they trained. All we can do is hope Shavkat gets rids of Belal so Islam can move up and we can witness some truly exciting fights.
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UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi has taken a big hit as the main card rematch between Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov has been scratched from the card due to a Volkov injury.
There’s no details on what injury Volkov sustained during training, but according to reports from French outlet La Sueur, the fight will be delayed from October 26th to UFC 310 on December 7th in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gane vs. Volkov was originally set to sit near the top of UFC 308, sometimes being advertised as the co-main but eventually being dropped to third slot behind the main event between Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway and a five round fight between Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev. With Whittaker vs. Chimaev appearing on the poster for UFC 308, that was all settled — at least until Volkov withdrew from the bout.
Diaz, 41, was last in action against Robbie Lawler at UFC 266, where he was stopped via TKO. The older brother of Nate Diaz has not won a fight since UFC 137 in 2011, where he beat down B.J. Penn. Diaz was also put on the shelf for years because of a dumb marijuana suspension.
Luque, 32, has not competed since Joaquin Buckley bludgeoned him in the co-main event of UFC Atlantic City (watch highlights). “The Silent Assassin” has lost three of his last five fights, two via finish.