Ilia Topuria vows to dominate Arman Tsarukyan in potential matchup

Ilia Topuria is set to face Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250, but the backup fighter for the bout is none other than Arman Tsarukyan, with whom 'El Matador' has some bad blood. So, when asked on the DeepCut with VicBlends podcast about potentially facing Tsarukyan if Gaethje withdraws, Topuria did not hesitate to trash Tsarukyan as a fighter.

Ilia Topuria believes he'd embarrass Arman Tsarukyan

It was during a discussion about Ilia Topuria's potential matchups in the lightweight division that talk of fighting Arman Tsarukyan arose. After brushing off the suggestion of a bout with Paddy Pimblett, who absorbed a tremendous amount of damage in his loss to Justin Gaethje at UFC 324, Topuria touched on fighting Tsarukyan. While he described the matchup as good, he also claimed to feel no threat (1:00:27):

"The fight with Arman is gonna be a good fight. The thing is, they used to take a lot of confidence because they fight with fighters that... his last fight was against Dan Hooker. He has, I don't know, 20 losses in his professional career. It's like, bro, you never ever, forget about it, never ever in your entire life you've faced someone like me. It's like, I'm going to embarrass you in front of everyone. Because with him, he thinks that he's tough, he thinks that his wrestling is I don't know what, like he feels that he's an Olympic champion. Anyways, if he's the best in the world in wrestling? When it comes to the octagon, bro, I'm the king. In there, I'm the king."

Topuria continued to highlight his belief that Tsarukyan's wrestling, although strong, will not be enough against him and that he'll add him to his growing list of jaw-dropping knockouts.

"I'll do with you whatever I wanna f***ing do. And I told him, like, I'm gonna break his jaw in the first round. He's gonna try and take me down since the beginning of the fight, and when he's gonna realize that, bro, it's not that easy to take this leg and take me down. Especially to control me on the ground? Are you crazy? And then, he's gonna start panicking. He's gonna be panicked and I'm gonna break his jaw in front of all the crowd, all his people, his family, who gives a f**k?"

Tsarukyan himself, who once pulled out of a title fight with Islam Makhachev due to injury, has been campaigning for a lightweight title shot against Topuria for some time now, even using social media streaming to elevate his public image among the casual fanbase. For now, though, he must await the results of Topuria's upcoming title defense against Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250.