The lightweight division will undergo a significant change this Saturday night.
A number of the sport’s top stars have been weighing in on Justin Gaethje’s clash with Paddy Pimblett that can headline UFC 324 on January 24.
An interim champion shall be crowned on the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to hopefully make the division’s current landscape a bit clearer.
Ilia Topuria goals to be back between April and June to collide with the winners of this weekend’s headliner to unify the belts at 155 kilos.
An answer was recently pitched for certainly one of the key issues with this plan.
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Is the UFC 324 major event a mistmatch?
One TalkingPoints user thinks Justin Gaethje will run through Paddy Pimblett.
Arman Tsarukyan wants the UFC to place together a light-weight Grand Prix
Arman Tsarukyan still isn’t within the UFC’s good books attributable to his withdrawal from UFC 311 last yr and a number of other moments where he’s let emotion get the higher of him.
His name not being involved within the interim lightweight title fight led to many criticizing the matchup.
The larger issue for the highest contender within the division is that while many imagine he’s probably the most deserving of a title shot, he’ll likely should wait for Ilia Topuria to fight either Justin Gaethje or Paddy Pimblett first.
Tsarukyan has suggested one other fight he’d be fascinated with taking while he waits but he also has one other suggestion for a way this might all be resolved in a fast and decisive way.
Because the yr 2000, the leading MMA promotion has only hosted two tournaments despite this initially being their major format.
Tsarukyan wants to vary this so as to force the most effective within the division to all compete against each other with no room for excuses.
“I would love to do within the UFC like a Grand Prix,” he said during an appearance on One Night with Steiny. “Eight of the most effective fighters fight for the title… Within the Grand Prix, you get there, eight of the most effective fighters and in six weeks, one champion. It doesn’t matter in case you get hurt or what happens with you, you’re imagined to fight. For those who’re not fighting, you pull out, the subsequent one is coming.”
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Was Arman Tsarukyan’s response to Paddy Pimblett’s UFC 324 title shot valid?
The Armenian star was ignored despite being the No. 1 contender, making weight because the UFC 317 backup, and submitting Dan Hooker for his fifth straight win.
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An identical pitch has been made for the lightweight division up to now
The UFC’s last tournament saw 4 competitors compete across three events to crown the inaugural flyweight champion.
While the bracket won by Demetrious Johnson in 2012 followed the same format to Arman Tsarukyan’s pitch by splitting the fights over several cards, other fighters have made different suggestions up to now.
In 2024, Dana White liked the sound of Dustin Poirier’s idea to host a one-night four-man tournament for the BMF belt, featuring him, Max Holloway, Dan Hooker, and Justin Gaethje.
The UFC president wasn’t so high on this plan when he realized that ‘The Diamond’ desired to have every bout happen on the identical night.
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