Ilia Topuria has broken his silence after weeks of receiving insults and taunts from fellow UFC rivals like Islam Makhachev and, particularly, Arman Tsarukyan, the fighter who was left out from the UFC interim fight for the lightweight title.
Topuria announced that he will not fight in the first three months of the year due to personal reasons, that he later explained in a statement: he claims to have been extorted on false case of domestic abuse. Some have asked that Topuria's lightweight title should be stripped from him if he does not defend it, but UFC organised an interim fight between Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje in January 2026. The winner will then face Topuria later in the year.
One of the most critical with the decisions has been Tsarukyan, who has not been given the chance to fight for the interim title, despite being higher in the ranking. Topuria, talking in the YouTube channel 'eldoberdanMMA', said that Tsarukyan "is a good fighter, but not very smart", and explains that he has been given other chances for the world championship, and he withdrew from te fight. "All of us fighters have faced back pain, leg pain, and still shown up for the fight. He, for some reason, didn't."
Arman Tsarukyan's refusal to fight and headbutts have caused UFC problems
"I'm speaking as a promoter. Giving someone such a big promotion, investing so much money in promoting them, putting them on such a big card... only for them to screw you over like that, it's very difficult to trust them again", added Topuria.
"Then he had another main event fight where he headbutted his opponent during the face-off. It doesn't show much intelligence, nor does it reflect the support the UFC is giving him in its promotions. People are investing a lot of money in his fights, and with a headbutt, he's putting everything at risk. His opponent could suffer unnecessary damage, and the fight could fall apart. When you see someone like that, would you continue to support him?"
Topuria ended his opinion on Tsarukyan saying that UFC "They saw that, sat down at a table, and thought, 'Screw Arman.' So, from here: screw you, Arman."