Arman Tsarukyan didn’t just beat Dan Hooker in Qatar, he walked out of the cage acting like a man who knew exactly where he belonged. One dominant performance. One arm-triangle submission. One undeniable message: he is the No. 1 lightweight contender. But as he stood there pointing at the imaginary belt around his waist in front of UFC executive Hunter Campbell, he realized something every contender eventually faces, sometimes, being the next man in line doesn’t mean you’re actually next.

And when the MMA sphere is swirling with Ilia Topuria’s superstardom and Conor McGregor’s return announcements, even the cleanest resume can get lost in the noise. Still, Tsarukyan’s confidence didn’t shrink for a second. He knows he’s ready. He knows the timing makes sense. But the UFC? They haven’t said a word to him. And that’s exactly where his hilarious exchange with Daniel Cormier begins!

Speaking to the former champ-champ on his YouTube channel, Cormier asked him whether the UFC had confirmed his status as the next challenger. Tsarukyan shook his head. “I haven’t… I didn’t talk to them yet,” he admitted. He revealed that when he gestured for the belt toward Hunter Campbell after the fight, all he got back was something like, “Yeah, we’ll think about that.”

The lightweight contender laughed because he didn’t know what else he could possibly do. “Maybe beat a couple more contenders,” he joked, “or maybe they going to bring someone from Japan, some debut guy and I got to beat him like Pantoja did.”  A clear shot at Kai Asakura’s loss to the flyweight champion, Alexandre Pantoja, at UFC 310.

Cormier then asked if Tsarukyan would fight again before a title shot, and the answer came instantly: “No way.” Unless, he added with a smirk, “If it’s not Conor McGregor, I wouldn’t fight.”

When the former champion brought up Conor McGregor’s recent proclamation that he’s back after a “spiritual journey” involving visions and a divine awakening, Tsarukyan didn’t care as he stated in the interview, “He never fight me and the UFC never let me fight Conor McGregor. It’s a nightmare for him. ” The line landed like a punchline delivered perfectly, half serious, half tongue-in-cheek, fully confident.

The truth is, Arman Tsarukyan knows how the fight game works. Conor McGregor is reportedly aiming for a White House return event. Ilia Topuria wants Islam Makhachev at welterweight or Paddy Pimblett in the meantime. But according to Daniel Cormier, there’s only one name that makes sense for a lightweight title clash!

Daniel Cormier throws his weight behind Arman Tsarukyan’s campaign for a title shot against Ilia Topuria

While the division buzzes with talk of Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria’s unfinished business, Daniel Cormier believes the UFC is ignoring the obvious. If Islam Makhachev is now the welterweight king, then the two best lightweights left standing aren’t Topuria and Paddy, they’re Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan!

On a recent episode of the Good Guy/Bad Guy show with Chael Sonnen, he stated, “I think Paddy Pimblett’s fun, I think Paddy Pimblett has a bright future in fighting, but I believe that the two best lightweights in the world, if Islam Makhachev is now the welterweight champion, are Arman Tsarukyan and Ilia Topuria, and that’s not even a question anymore.”

So what changed the picture? According to the former double champion, Tsarukyan’s destruction of Dan Hooker rewrote the lightweight hierarchy overnight. He acknowledged Pimblett’s star power and future potential, but he didn’t mince words about the optics of seeing ‘The Baddy’ inside the cage with Topuria at UFC 317. In his view, beating Michael Chandler simply didn’t justify that moment. But Tsarukyan’s recent performance? That did.

Cormier broke it down like a coach scouting a problem opponent as he continued, “He can do just about everything, and his top control is what’s a real issue, and I believe that’s the problem. That’s the scary thought for anyone that are Ilia Topuria fans because if there’s anyone that can replicate that game of Makhachev, or at least to a degree, it’s Arman Tsarukyan.”

As such, between his own confidence and Daniel Cormier’s public endorsement, the message is loud enough for anyone following the lightweight picture: the division has two elite forces, and Arman Tsarukyan is one of them. That’s why his jokes about “beating debut guys from Japan” or being Conor McGregor’s “nightmare” landed so well; they came from a man who knows exactly where he stands, even if the UFC matchmaking machine may be thinking otherwise!