Islam Makhachev’s former opponent, Dan Hooker, doesn’t believe the Russian fighter will make a UFC lightweight title defense against his compatriot Arman Tsarukyan, whom he defeated by unanimous decision five years ago.
“Their first fight was pretty close and Tsarukyan could have won,” MMA Fighting quoted the New Zealander as saying. “Islam is not going to fight him. I guarantee you, Islam will retire by the time Arman gets a title shot. It’s too risky, too much risk. There are plenty of easier fights that Islam would rather take.”
“Stylistically, there are much simpler fights, and those are the big names. No one is going to buy a pay-per-view broadcast of the Arman Tsarukian fight. Nobody’s going to watch the press conference. No one is going to shell out $80 dollars for this fight. You’d rather have an Islam fight against Conor McGregor or Justin Gaethje or something like that.”
A month ago, 27-year-old Arman Tsarukyan picked up his third straight win, knocking out American Benil Dariush as early as the 64th second of the fight to move to fourth in the UFC lightweight rankings. The Russian has reportedly already secured a fight with one of the division’s top three representatives, which will be announced in the near future.
Islam Makhachev, 32, made the second successful defense of his title in October, knocking out Alexander Volkanovski in the first round, and finished the year at the top of the UFC’s rankings, regardless of weight class.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33543-makhachev-ne-budet-dratsya-s-tsarukyanom-byvshij-sopernik-chempiona-ufc-ne-verit-v-revansh-rossiyan.html?rand=19907
