Paddy Pimblett believes Arman Tsarukyan hasn’t done enough to earn the next lightweight title shot.
Tsarukyan is ranked No. 2 at lightweight and was supposed to fight for the 155 pound belt at UFC 311 back in January 2025, but a back injury aggravated by a bad weight cut resulted in him withdrawing at the last minute. The UFC has never quite forgiven “Ahalkalakets” for the incident, and other incidents like attacking a fan during his UFC 300 walkout and breaking Dan Hooker’s nose during a UFC Qatar
weigh-in.
That Hooker bout in November 2025 was Tsarukyan’s last proper UFC fight. Since then Arman has kept busy by competing in grappling and wrestling events, going 8-0-1. He’s also exploded in popularity on social media like Instagram and TikTok.
“Arman probably is the rightful number one contender, but he doesn’t fight,” Pimblett told Paramount+ in a recent interview. “He’s fought once in three years and beat a bum that they call Dan Hooker. He’s too busy doing wrestling matches, you know what I mean? So go and wrestle them, mate. You’re not a fighter no more.”
“He needs to fight though,” Pimblett said at UFC 329 media day. “He’s only had one fight in three years and he beat an absolute bum. He needs to actually fight. Not go around in a singlet tickling people. Anyone. Just fight someone, know what I mean? Get in the octagon and actually fight. Stop going around on your private jet, eating food.”
Paddy telling anyone to quit eating so much food is wild, but he has a point about Tsarukyan’s inactivity. Arman took a gamble when he decided to concentrate on building his popularity outside of the UFC and it’s paid off in a lot of ways. He’s a bigger name than ever, but waiting on the sidelines for a title shot simply isn’t going to work at lightweight where there’s several massively popular AND active fighters in that division division.
The obvious solution to us is to have Tsarukyan rematch Charles Oliveira given how close their UFC 300 fight is. As for Paddy Pimblett, he’s said he feels like a win over Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 329 won’t be enough to get him another title fight and he’s ready to compete again to build back to the belt. Conor McGregor and Ilia Topuria are both names that keep coming up, and those would both be absolutely massive.
