{"id":643849,"date":"2025-11-26T07:05:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T06:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/?p=643849"},"modified":"2025-11-26T07:05:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T06:05:24","slug":"ilia-topuria-snubs-arman-tsarukyan-reveals-his-preferred-opponent-if-islam-makhachev-fight-is-out-of-the-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilia-topuria-snubs-arman-tsarukyan-reveals-his-preferred-opponent-if-islam-makhachev-fight-is-out-of-the-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Topuria Snubs Arman Tsarukyan, Reveals His Preferred Opponent If Islam Makhachev Fight Is Out Of The Picture\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Champions get to be picky about their opponents, and Ilia Topuria is exercising that privilege right now. The Georgian-Spanish fighter has been on an absolute tear through the UFC. He&rsquo;s knocked out legends and made it look easy. His confidence isn&rsquo;t just talk either. He&rsquo;s backed up every single word with devastating performances inside the octagon.<\/p><p>He knocked out Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight title, then became the first person ever to stop Max Holloway with strikes. After vacating that featherweight belt, he moved up and knocked out Charles Oliveira to claim the lightweight championship. That&rsquo;s two belts in completely dominant fashion, which gives him serious leverage when discussing what comes next. Now Ilia Topuria wants to jump to a third belt, but if not, he has a preferred opponent in mind.&nbsp;<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ilia Topuria Wants Paddy Pimblett Over Arman Tsarukyan<\/h2><p>Arman Tsarukyan just <a href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ufc-qatar-results-arman-tsarukyan-dominates-dan-hooker-ian-garry-makes-his-case-for-the-welterweight-title-myktebek-orolbai-waldo-cortes-acosta-get-finishes-and-more\/\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>dominated Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar<\/a>, earning himself a clear path to a title shot. Most champions would immediately lock in that fight because it makes perfect sense. Tsarukyan is a top contender who&rsquo;s earned his spot through impressive victories. But Topuria isn&rsquo;t interested in that matchup at all right now.<\/p><p>Instead, Topuria wants Paddy Pimblett if he can&rsquo;t fight Islam Makhachev next. That&rsquo;s a wild choice when fans think about it. Pimblett is popular and entertaining, but he&rsquo;s nowhere near the rankings Tsarukyan occupies. Topuria revealed he has Pimblett on his mind and wants to settle the beef between them. The two have traded words in the past, creating tension that apparently still bothers the champion enough to call him out specifically.<\/p><p><strong><em>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to fight Paddy if they don&rsquo;t let me move up to welterweight to fight Islam [Makhachev]. Because the fight I&rsquo;d really like is against Islam in the third weight class.&rdquo;<\/em><\/strong><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Ilia Topuria wants to fight Paddy Pimblett next if the UFC doesn't let him move up and fight Islam Makhachev:<br><br>\"I'd like to fight Paddy if they don't let me move up to welterweight to fight Islam. Because the fight I'd really like is against Islam in the third weight class.\"&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P9I3ikcZcM\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>pic.twitter.com\/P9I3ikcZcM<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChampRDS\/status\/1993192066197651738?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>November 25, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure><p>Topuria&rsquo;s first choice remains moving up to welterweight to challenge Makhachev, who recently became the welterweight champion after beating Jack Della Maddalena at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" class=\"trk-cta-link\" data-cta-trk='{\"ctaType\":\"Link\",\"ctaSubType\":\"main\"}'>UFC <\/a>322. Topuria wants that third belt badly, believing a fight with Makhachev would cement his legacy as one of the greatest ever. He mentioned possibly taking one more fight at lightweight before moving up in the summer to chase that welterweight gold.&nbsp;<\/p><p>Topuria&rsquo;s approach is bold but risky. Avoiding the clear number one contender to chase personal grudges or super fights can backfire. Fans respect champions who fight the best available opponents. But Topuria has earned some leeway with his performances. Whether he fights Pimblett, Tsarukyan, or Makhachev next, fans can bet he will make it entertaining.<\/p><p><strong>(Image Credit: Gary A. Vasquez &ndash; Imagn Images)<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"mm-layout mm-layout-type-post mm-layout-slot4\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Champions get to be picky about their opponents, and Ilia Topuria is exercising that privilege right now. The Georgian-Spanish fighter has been on an absolute tear through the UFC. He&rsquo;s knocked out legends and made it look easy. His confidence isn&rsquo;t just talk either. He&rsquo;s backed up every single word with devastating performances inside the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":643852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mux_skip_reasons":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1783],"tags":[1861,1963,1821,3215],"class_list":["post-643849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mma","tag-arman-tsarukyan","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-islam-makhachev","tag-paddy-pimblett"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ilia Topuria Snubs Arman Tsarukyan, Reveals His Preferred Opponent If Islam Makhachev Fight Is Out Of The Picture&nbsp; - The Playoffs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ilia Topuria bypasses Tsarukyan entirely, directing his attention to a more lucrative and attention-grabbing opponent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theplayoffs.news\/en\/ilia-topuria-snubs-arman-tsarukyan-reveals-his-preferred-opponent-if-islam-makhachev-fight-is-out-of-the-picture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ilia Topuria Snubs Arman Tsarukyan, Reveals His Preferred Opponent If Islam Makhachev Fight Is Out Of The Picture&nbsp; - 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Anaheim, California, USA; Ilia Topuria reacts to his championship victory against Alexander Volkanovski during UFC 298 at Honda Center. 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