Arman Tsarukyan will be paying close attention to the UFC 302 lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier.
Tsarukyan is the No. 1 contender at lightweight, but Poirier is getting the title shot on June 1 against Makhachev due to the timing. Heading into the fight, Makhachev is a sizeable -550 favorite to defeat Poirer, which Tsarukyan does agree with.
Arman Tsarukyan expects Islam Makhachev to outwrestle Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 to get the win. But, he isn’t ruling out ‘The Diamond’ scoring a KO win as he believes Poirier has a puncher’s chance.
“I see Islam is going to try and push him to the cage, to try and take him down and, try to hold him, submit him. But if he can’t do that, it’s going to be dangerous, if he wants to box him, I think Dustin Poirier on a different level, his punch, his speed, he can knock him out very fast. That’s why Islam’s gotta try to take him down right away. For me, the favorite is Islam, on this fight but like I can put money on Dustin Poirier KO, because it could happen,” Tsarukyan said to the New York Post.
Tsarukyan will be paying close attention to that fight as he expects to face the winner for the belt. Although if Poirier wins, an immediate rematch would likely happen, but with that said Tsarukayn has made it clear his next fight will be for the title.
“I’m gonna wait for my title fight. I know UFC is gonna give me that chance because they’re not bullshit, they’re gonna do real fight,” Tsarukyan said.
Arman Tsarukyan is currently 22-3 as a pro and coming off a split decision win over Charles Oliveira. Before that, he scored a KO win over Beneil Dariush and is 9-2 in the UFC with one of those losses being against Makhachev on short notice in his promotional debut. He holds notable wins over Damir Ismagulov, Christos Giagos, Matt Frevola, and Olivier Aubin-Mercier among others.