Arman Tsarukyan is getting asked the question every No. 2 contender hates: is the next lightweight title fight actually his? MMA Junkie’s Farah Hannoun put it to him, and the outlet teased the interview on X on Nov. 12 by asking whether Tsarukyan is 100 percent confident he’ll be part of the next UFC 155-pound championship fight.
The teaser doesn’t reveal his answer. That lives in Hannoun’s piece, and I’m not putting words in his mouth. What the rest of the division looks like explains why anyone needed to ask.
Justin Gaethje holds the belt. He took it from Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn on June 14, 2026, an upset Yahoo Sports’ power rankings described as Topuria losing badly. Yahoo reports Topuria has been pushing for a rematch and that Gaethje isn’t interested at all.
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Then there’s the retirement chatter. Yahoo’s rankings column says there’s a lot of talk that Gaethje could step down and retire as champion, along with rumblings that Tsarukyan could be his opponent before that happens. Those are unattributed rumblings, so treat them that way. No one with a name attached has said it on the record in anything I’ve seen.
The official pecking order doesn’t settle it either. In the UFC Meta Rankings published by MMA Mania, Topuria sits at No. 1 and Tsarukyan at No. 2. Charles Oliveira is No. 3 and has his own business on Dec. 12, headlining UFC 335 against Diego Lopes for the BMF title. Max Holloway is No. 4 after beating Conor McGregor in under two minutes at UFC 329, a fight that ended when McGregor tried a spinning kick and tore up his knee.
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And a featherweight is circling too. After Alexander Volkanovski knocked out Movsar Evloev seconds before the end of Round 2 at UFC 333, he was asked about fighting Gaethje. Yahoo reported his answer as “I’m down for whatever.” When the pound-for-pound No. 1 says that about your champion, the No. 2 lightweight has a reason to sweat.
Tsarukyan had plenty to say on Nov. 12 about other people’s business. Reacting to the brawl between Merab Dvalishvili and Usman Nurmagomedov, he told RAF Wrestling USA, “This always happens, it’s part of our sport. Sometimes camera [catches it], sometimes no. This time someone filmed it.”
In a separate clip via Adam Zubayraev, shared by Championship Rounds, he went further in Nurmagomedov’s defense. “It was bound to happen. I was just surprised nothing happened the last time Merab was here. There was bound to be retaliation, and it happened,” Tsarukyan said. He added that he didn’t think Nurmagomedov wanted an actual fight and only wanted to hit Dvalishvili the same way.
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My take: Tsarukyan’s problem is a champion who owes nobody anything. Gaethje already turned down the rematch with the guy ranked No. 1, he has a featherweight champion volunteering, and the retirement talk means the next title fight might not even include him. The No. 2 spot is a great place to stand when the champ wants to keep fighting. Right now that’s an open question, and the next domino falls Dec. 12 in Las Vegas when Oliveira and Lopes fight for the BMF belt.
