BMF belt on the line: Arman vs Oliveira targeted for UFC 331

A rematch no one saw coming might happen in late September. The BMF Champion, Charles Oliveira, is expected to face the lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan with the belt on the line. According to their sources, Russian media posted on their Instagram profile that the fight will take place in Las Vegas on Sept. 19 this year.

Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan Rematch Fight Nobody Expected

After Ilia Topuria lost his belt to Justin Gaethje, everybody expected Arman to be the next in line for the lightweight gold. A fighter that represents Armenia has been on the wait for about two years now. After his win over Oliveira in 2024, the fans expected to see him fighting for the belt relatively soon. He did get his chance on UFC 311, where he was supposed to fight Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title.

However, Tsarukyan was forced to pull out due to the back injury after Moicano stepped in on short notice. After that fight, Islam vacated his title, and the second chance for Arman was there. But to the surprise of many, Oliveira, who lost to Arman a little more than a year prior, got the fight against Topuria for the vacated title.

Fast forward to 2026. Charles Oliveira recovered from the defeat he suffered versus Topuria with two wins against Gamrot and Holloway; meanwhile, Arman Tsarukyan fought only once after the Oliveira fight and spent most of his time competing in the RAF. After the lightweight division got the new champion, it seemed there was only one contender available, that being Arman.

As for Charles Oliveira, since Paddy Pimblett called out the Brazilian, everyone expected that the UFC would make that fight since it does make sense. None of the fighters spoke about the rumors yet.

Does Making This Fight Make Sense for Lightweight Division?

As stated before, there is no clear challenger for the belt. Paddy Pimblett already lost to Justin Gaethje. Ilia Topuria won't be back until the end of the year; Holloway lost to Oliveira, and Do Bronxs should be busy with his BMF belt. 

So booking the only fighter that is in a place where he deserves a title shot to another fight doesn't make much sense. Even if the winner of this fight gets a guaranteed title fight, it would still slow down the most entertaining division in the UFC. On top of that, if this fight happens, Justin would have to wait for Ilia to come back or, in a wild scenario, face Max Holloway again.

In any case, this is still just a rumor, and people can speculate. Arman Tsarukyan should definitely fight soon, and if not for the belt, facing a strong contender is always good. The only thing we can do is wait to see in which direction the lightweight division will be going.