Arman Tsarukyan Says Gaethje Is Ducking Him, Eyes Volkanovski Next

Arman Tsarukyan has stopped pretending he's patient. The No. 2 lightweight, riding a first-round TKO of Mauricio Ruffy that pushed his record to 24-3, says champion Justin Gaethje is actively avoiding him and now floating retirement instead of booking a defense. Gaethje only grabbed undisputed gold this past June, torching the previously undefeated Ilia Topuria at UFC White House, and he's since been nursing an injury with eyes on a 2027 comeback and zero opponents locked in.

Speaking to Helen Yee Sports before his RAF 14 main event against Dillon Danis, Tsarukyan put it bluntly: somebody's ducking him, and that somebody is the man holding the belt. He figures the UFC has two realistic outcomes — either they back up the truck financially to get Gaethje through the door one more time, or the champ walks away. Tsarukyan says the promotion told him he'd have an answer by the end of November.

The Volkanovski Wrinkle

Here's where it gets interesting. Tsarukyan has previously teased a cut to 145 to chase Alexander Volkanovski. But with Volkanovski fresh off a second-round KO of Movsar Evloev to defend the featherweight crown — his record now sitting at 29-4 — and openly calling for a fight with Gaethje, the math has flipped. Instead of chasing Volk down, Tsarukyan would happily greet him at 155.

He likes the matchup, and he didn't dress it up. Tsarukyan called it stylistically perfect for him, then needled the featherweight king over his age and durability. It's the kind of trash talk that reads better when you're coming off a one-round finish and the other guy's been through multiple five-round wars.

If the Belt Comes Loose

Should both Gaethje and Volkanovski fall out of the picture, the lightweight title could go vacant — and Tsarukyan intends to be first in line. He rattled off a wishlist of potential opponents: Topuria, Paddy Pimblett, or the winner of Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes. Oliveira, the No. 3 lightweight at 37-11 with a staggering 22 submissions, meets Lopes next in a bout tied to the vacant "BMF" conversation.

To Tsarukyan, none of them move the needle much. He claimed all the contenders sit on roughly the same level and that beating any of them wouldn't be hard. Bold words from a man who's lost just three times in 27 fights — but at this stage of the division's chaos, bold words might be exactly what gets him booked.

The clock is ticking on that end-of-November deadline. Whether it delivers a champion, a vacancy, or a surprise drop-in from a featherweight legend, Tsarukyan's grown comfortable with every version of the story.