Outside Source
Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje are scheduled to fight for the interim lightweight title at UFC 324 on Jan. 24 in Las Vegas. This deprived Tsarukyan of yet another shot at the lightweight title. “Ahalkalakets” was initially sidelined after withdrawing from a title shot against Islam Makhachev earlier this year. When Ilia Topuria won the title, he ignored repeated callouts from Tsarukyan, plotting a defense against Pimblett (23-3) instead.
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Tsarukyan (23-3) had one shot at securing a gold bid with a submission win over Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar earlier this month. However, Tsarukyan seemingly wasn’t harboring much hope. While he didn’t expect the interim title fight, Tsarukyan claims he knew that Pimblett would get the next title shot against Topuria. Tsarukyan knew he would be snubbed even if he knocked out Hooker.
Conspiracy Theory
The interim title fight was made because Topuria is taking a hiatus due to personal reasons. However, Tsarukyan believes it’s the UFC’s ploy to build Pimblett up as a bigger star for a title unifier against Topuria. Tsarukyan believes he was deprived of the title shot as there is no competition left for him at lightweight after former champ Makhachev moved up to welterweight.
“I already knew that Paddy gonna fight with Ilia Topuria in January. But I didn’t know they’re gonna do interim title Gaethje vs. Paddy,” Tsarukyan told ESPN “… And I didn’t think something would happen even if I knocked [Dan Hooker] out because they already set up that fight… I think this is UFC game plan, not family issues. They want to make Paddy Pimblett a star, bring him to fight for the title with Topuria as a bigger name and make it a big fight… They know I could beat everybody that’s why they didn’t give me title fight. Paddy, for me, is easy work, Justin is easy work, Ilia easy work. Islam was hard work but he left, so nobody is on my level in this division right now.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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