Arman Tsarukyan continues to be everywhere but in a lightweight title fight, showing up on endless podcasts and Influencer streams as his PR blitz continues. And during one of those streams, “Ahalkalakets” suggested that he was considering a drop down to featherweight if that meant fighting for a title sooner.
“I’m not getting Gaethje, I’m not getting anybody,” Tsarukyan said on the Ariel Helwani show. “I’m going to try and get the title at 145. Yeah, what I can do. I talked to coach, we did the math and everything, so my body can go to 145. He said it’s not easy but we can make it happen.”
“If it’s a fight in June, if we know in two, three weeks that we’re fighting at 145, I will make it happen,” he added. “Because I walk around not big, I’m like 175 right now. If I start eating clean I’m gonna be 165. And then from there I can go down.”
That’s an interesting suggestion, especially from someone who botched a weight cut at the start of 2025 so badly that he couldn’t fight for the lightweight title. There’s certainly not the same logjam at featherweight for title contenders as there is at lightweight. Alexander Volkanovski is rematching Diego Lopes at UFC 325 because there’s no one else with a bankable name available. While “The Great” has made it clear he’d like to fight top-ranked guys like Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy next, he’d accept Tsarukyan as well.
“I love challenges. He would obviously be a tough challenge,” Volkanovski said at UFC 325 media day. “If he could get down here, that’d be definitely a tough challenge.”
Volk sounded amused when a reporter told him Tsarukyan threatened to finish their potential fight with an axe kick to the face.
“Okay. Just axe kick me? Okay,” Volkanovski said with a smile. “He says he’s going to axe kick me? Obviously he’s going to want to wrestle. Again, I like the guy, he’s hilarious. That PR run he went on was incredible. He’s another guy I’d like to do a Cooking with Volk episode with. I have actually done one with him. But yeah, if we face him, everyone knows my takedown defense is solid. And if they forget that, I’ll remind them.”
Tsarukyan may not even have to make the cut down to 145 to face Volkanovski. While Alex is content at the moment rebuilding the momentum he lost after losing to Ilia Topuria and previous attempts to move to 155, it’s clear that he’s still got one eye on the lightweight title.
“We’ll see what happens for me,” Volkanovski said. “Whether Ilia will be bouncing back. I think he said he would [return] mid-year. We’ll see what happens there. I mean, you got a stacked division. You got Arman as well. We’ll see what happens. Maybe a couple wins, maybe I’m back in that conversation. We’ll see.”
For now Alexander Volkanovski will have to hold onto his belt against the always scrappy Diego Lopes at UFC 325, set to go down Saturday, January 31st from Sydney, Australia.
