Arman Tsarukyan scored the biggest victory of his career by smashing Top 5 contender Beneil Dariush in the UFC Austin headliner last weekend on ESPN, throwing a wrench into the promotion’s existing plans to have Islam Makhachev defend his lightweight title against former champion Charles Oliveira.
But UFC fans clamoring for a Makhachev-Tsarukyan rematch are likely to be disappointed.
That’s according to longtime lightweight veteran Dan Hooker, who was also expected to compete at UFC Austin before breaking his arm (again). “The Hangman” believes the risk-to-reward ratio is too high for Makhachev, prompting the Dagestani bruiser to call it a career before rematching “Ahalkalakets.”
“He ain’t gonna fight him. I guarantee he’ll retire,” Hooker told The MMA Hour (transcribed by Sherdog). “He’ll retire by the time Arman gets to him for sure… Too risky, there’s too much risk. There’s too many other easier fights out there…Stylistically, the bigger names who are actually gonna sell, like no one’s gonna buy a Arman Tsarukyan pay-per-view. No one’s tuning into the press conference, no one’s giving the $80 for the pay-per-view. You’d rather watch Islam fight [Conor] McGregor or [Justin] Gaethje or someone like that.”
It should be noted that Hooker is no fan or Makhachev or his team.
Tsarukyan (21-3) had the unenviable task of making his Octagon debut against Makhachev (25-1) at the UFC St. Petersburg event back in early 2019, losing a close decision after five rounds of hard-fought action. Since then, “Ahalkalakets” is 8-1 with four finishes while Makhachev went 8-0 with six finishes, capturing the lightweight title along the way.
Seems like these two are on a collision course … unless Makhachev abruptly retires.