{"id":48252,"date":"2025-07-08T08:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T08:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48252\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T08:50:11","slug":"ilia-topuria-slams-arman-tsarukyan-after-top-lightweight-claims-hed-maul-him-in-potential-ufc-title-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/48252\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria slams Arman Tsarukyan after top lightweight claims he’d ‘maul him’ in potential UFC title showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bad blood is brewing between UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and top contender Arman Tsarukyan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ilia Topuria<\/a> rose to the UFC\u2019s pound-for-pound No. 1 spot with a vicious knockout of Charles Oliveira<\/a> at UFC 317. Topuria became the latest in a distinguished group of UFC elites to earn championships in multiple divisions.<\/p>\n

After knocking out Oliveira at UFC 317, Topuria had a heated faceoff with Paddy Pimblett<\/a> in the center of the cage. Many have speculated Topuria vs. Pimblett will be the next lightweight title fight, despite Arman Tsarukyan<\/a> and Justin Gaethje<\/a> also in the mix for Topuria\u2019s first lightweight title defense.<\/p>\n

While Tsarukyan might have to win at least one more fight before earning another title shot, he\u2019s garnered the attention of the lightweight champion.<\/p>\n

\"IliaPhoto by Cooper Neill\/Zuffa LLCIlia Topuria hits back at \u2018total jerk\u2019 Arman Tsarukyan over post-UFC 317 comments<\/p>\n

Tsarukyan has been dismissive of Topuria\u2019s performance<\/a> at UFC 317, accusing the newly-crowned lightweight champion of being one-dimensional. He pointed to one of Topuria\u2019s featherweight wins<\/a> as an example of some of his weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Just after UFC 317, Tsarukyan was asked how he\u2019d approach a potential fight with Topuria in a recent chat with The New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll just take him down, hold him and just maul him,\u201d Tsarukyan declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll finish him on the ground. He\u2019s not gonna be able to escape from me. He\u2019s good at one thing, boxing!\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with ABC Spain<\/a>, Topuria responded to Tsarukyan.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a total jerk! Have you seen his fight against Charles Oliveira? How many times he was on the verge of submitting him and tapping him out?\u201d Topuria replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had so many submissions. He\u2019s a total jerk. I can assure you, I\u2019ll finish Arman Tsarukyan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Topuria is targeting a return to the Octagon by year\u2019s end for his first lightweight title defense. Tsarukyan was supposed to fight Islam Makhachev<\/a> for the title at UFC 311 before withdrawing due to a back injury, and he has yet to be booked for his next fight.<\/p>\n

UFC CEO Dana White<\/a> was non-committal on Topuria\u2019s next opponent following UFC 317<\/a>. Amid the building tensions between Topuria and Tsarukyan, the matchmakers might have their hands full.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ilia Topuria\u2019s UFC 317 weigh-in controversy prompted a strong response from former referee<\/p>\n

Just hours before knocking out Oliveira, Topuria was the center of a bizarre moment at the UFC 317 ceremonial weigh-in. As he stepped on the scale, Topuria\u2019s weight was announced as 155.5 lbs, a half pound over the championship limit.<\/p>\n

After a brief awkward moment, the Nevada State Athletic Commission official then announced that Topuria successfully made championship weight. Former referee \u2018Big\u2019 John McCarthy recently concluded that Topuria didn\u2019t cheat<\/a>, despite some believing Topuria didn\u2019t make weight ahead of UFC 317.<\/p>\n

Topuria has never missed weight in his UFC tenure.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bad blood is brewing between UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria and top contender Arman Tsarukyan. Ilia Topuria rose…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":48253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[37001,21257,560,62,552,7906,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-48252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arman-tsarukyan","9":"tag-ilia-topuria","10":"tag-mma","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-ufc","13":"tag-ufc-317","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114816760337906810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}