Arman Tsarukyan preferred fighting a different UFC lightweight contender before drawing Dan Hooker.
Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) meets Hooker (24-12 MMA, 14-8 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 265 main event on Nov. 22 at ABHA Arena in Doha, Qatar (ESPN+).
Tsarukyan’s No. 1 option was to challenge lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, but after withdrawing from his title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311, Dana White said he was required to fight again before another shot. Hooker was aggressively calling Tsarukyan out, but Tsarukyan had his sights set on a higher-ranked opponent.
“I was asking about the title fight and they said this year, Ilia’s not going to fight,” Tsarukyan said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “That’s why I said I’ll fight anybody because I haven’t fought in a long time so, I want to fight. I told them Dan Hooker or (Justin) Gaethje works for me. These names. I heard Gaethje said no and Hooker said yes so, we are in. Gaethje would be better, but for me, it doesn’t matter. Both of them, easy money for me.”
Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) has made it clear that it’s title shot or bust for him. Tsarukyan says he understands why Gaethje doesn’t want to fight him.
“He knows he could lose to me,” Tsarukyan said of Gaethje. “We’ll see how my fight goes, but for sure our fight is No. 1 contender. They didn’t say this is a No. 1 contender fight, like Dana (White) said last weekend it’s a No. 1 contender fight, but we know they can do whatever they want to do.”
