


Only one man deserves to challenge Ilia Topuria for the UFC lightweight championship he just earned on Saturday, in the eyes of that man: Arman Tsarukyan.
“Right now, it’s necessary to fight for the title,” Tsarukyan told The Post on Monday via video call from Thailand. “I’m contender No. 1, and I beat everybody in my division.”
There’s little room for argument with that logic, as Tsarukyan’s last fight was a victory over Charles Oliveira — the man Topuria just knocked out at UFC 317 in Las Vegas to become a career two-division champion.
What’s kept the prospect of a title shot out of reach is the fact that the last time he was to fight for gold, Tsarukyan was pulled from the fight on the day of weigh-ins for his scheduled UFC 311 clash with then-champ Islam Makhachev.