Arman Tsarukyan is arguably one of the strong contenders in the UFC lightweight division. But due to his antics, he is seemingly being sidelined from a title shot. And that has left Tsarukyan pondering other options, including a potential move to the UFC featherweight division. While he struggled to make weight at UFC 311 going by Dana White’s statements, many questioned his wish to drop down to the featherweight division.

On the other hand, Tsarukyan strongly believes he can cut down and make the weight. On top of that, the Armenian also believes he has the skillset to beat the 145-pound champion, Alexander Volkanovski. While Volkanovski accepted the idea of Tsarukyan moving to his division, he was not sure whether the Armenian would be able to make weight or not.

Alexander Volkanovski analyzes Arman Tsarukyan’s featherweight move

“It’d be good to have a guy like him. Obviously, we’ve got a stacked division. To have someone like Arman in it would be incredible. Whether he can make the cut, I’m not sure. I mean, he’s not too big, maybe he could,” said Alexander Volkanovski during an interview with Complex.

Volkanovski further shared his thoughts on Arman Tsarukyan’s chances at a quick title shot in the featherweight division. He said, “But yeah, whether he gets to come in and jump straight to the front of the line, I don’t know about that. You’ve got your Movsars [Evloev] and [Lerone] Murphys, who are probably going to fight. I think it’s going to be clear who’s next. But it’d be very exciting, obviously a tough challenge for any of us in our division.”

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The UFC featherweight division surely has a lot of rising prospects and contenders. With Volkanovski as the champion, fighters like Diego Lopes, Movsar Evloev, and Lerone Murphy are some of the top names. Israel Adesanya recently suggested Jean Silva’s name as a potential title contender for the featherweight title. Now, if Tsarukyan moves down to the 145 division, it would surely be a tough call to give him a title shot before Evloev, Murphy, and Silva.

But despite that, if Tsarukyan gets that opportunity, does Volkanovski have anything to gain from that fight? One of the UFC featherweight champion’s teammates has shared his thoughts on it.

Dan Hooker previews potential Volkanovski vs. Tsarukyan matchup

Dan Hooker is fresh off a defeat against Arman Tsarukyan at UFC Qatar last year. And he is well aware of Tsarukyan’s skill sets as a fighter. But while previewing a potential fight between the Armenian and Alexander Volkanovski, Hooker gave a harsh reality check.

“Both very well-rounded fighters. But then… the only question is gonna be: what does Arman look like at that weight? It’s not really… and then what? We’re not gonna sit there and be like, this is the best Arman Tsarukyan. Like, he gets beat and then what? It’s gonna be like Volk beats one of the best fighters in the world, only for people to think, ‘Oh no, the weight cut f**ked up Arman.’ It’s kind of a nothing to achieve from that fight, I guess,” said Hooker in an interview with Submission Radio.

Notably, Tsarukyan does have a history of struggling with making weights. Although he is confident about cutting down to the featherweight limit, it could have negative impacts on his body. And those could be crucial in a potential bout at Volkanovski at 145 pounds.

Amid that, nothing about Tsarukyan’s featherweight move has been confirmed yet. While ‘The Great’ will be defending his title against Diego Lopes at UFC 325 this weekend, the Armenian has no fight scheduled as of now.