Dana White doesn’t feel the need to explain why No. 1 lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan is currently out of the title picture.
When the first UFC event of 2026 was announced, fans were somewhat surprised
to see an interim lightweight title bout between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett at the top of the UFC 324 marquee. The picture became a little bit clearer with undisputed champion Ilia Topuria announcing plans to take time off until at least April to deal with personal matters, but it was still strange to see Tsarukyan seemingly removed from the equation after scoring a dominant win over Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar.
Tsarukyan fell out of favor with White after dropping out of the main event of UFC 311 in January. He was scheduled to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title, but a back injury forced his withdrawal just days before the event, and White later said he would have to fight to regain his spot.
Nearly 12 months later, it appears Tsarukyan still has a lot of work to do.
“It’s not like I’ve confronted Arman,” White told The Mac Life. “Arman’s a man, he knows how this played out. He knows how this all went down behind the scenes. He knows. We all f*cking know. I don’t ever talk about this shit publicly because you guys [the media] are like a bunch of f*cking old ladies and anything that you can get clicks on and f*cking keep bringing up and all this shit, a lot of man shit happens in this f*cking business and we keep it between us men and it is what it is.
“Now you guys will come out and say, ‘Why isn’t he getting…?’ Arman knows.”
White didn’t specify exactly what ongoing issues exist between Tsarukyan and the UFC, though a pre-fight staredown head butt he delivered to Hooker that potentially jeopardized their fight couldn’t have helped.
Fortunately for Tsarukyan, both he and Hooker made it to fight night without issue and Tsarukyan picked up another important win to improve to 10-2 in the UFC.
Tsarukyan isn’t set to fight for the title anytime soon, but White wants it to be clear he’s not completely in the doghouse as far as he’s concerned.
“He’s here,” White said. “You know what I didn’t do? We haven’t cut him. We’re not sideways with him. We don’t dislike him.”
