For one of the UFC’s top contenders, the path to a title shot has mysteriously vanished. Colby Covington claims to know the dark reason why Arman Tsarukyan is being left in the cold. The Armenian last fought in the promotion when he submitted Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar. However, instead of getting closer to a championship shot, he has spent the following few months competing in grappling matches outside the company while the title picture moves on without him.

Colby Covington believes there is a simple reason behind this. Speaking on N3on’s YouTube channel, the former interim welterweight champion stated that fighters don’t always have control over their own destiny in the UFC, and once the company decides to move in a different direction, there is little they can do about it.

“You have no say,” Covington said. “Hunter Campbell, who is like the UFC lawyer, he kind of just tells you what direction they’re gonna go, and it’s either you take it or leave it.

“You don’t really get a choice what you wanna do.”

‘Chaos’ said that the problem worsens when a fighter declines a bout or withdraws at the wrong time, as the promotion can simply stop offering them opportunities. According to him, Arman Tsarukyan is currently experiencing this after missing his scheduled title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311.

“They just leave you,” Colby Covington added. “They ice you. They won’t give you fights.

“They’ll say, ‘You turned down this fight; now you’re not gonna fight for the year.’ You’re not gonna make money. They freeze you out.”

Covington stated that the timing of Arman Tsarukyan’s withdrawal had a significant impact on how the promotion reacted, especially since the bout was already being pushed as a major pay-per-view.

“He’s definitely getting iced,” Colby Covington explained. “Because he turned down the title fight. He pulled out the week of the fight when the UFC was selling this pay-per-view.

“You either accept it, be a company man, or they’ll just ice you, and you don’t get a fight to make money.”

‘Ahalkalakets’ has remained busy outside of the UFC during this period with the RAF and Hype FC.

Meanwhile, the lightweight division has moved forward, and Arman Tsarukyan’s absence from the title picture has just added to the confusion for fans who expected him to be next in line. To make matters worse, he even lost his spot in the pound-for-pound rankings last week. However, the latest update has given him a new spot.

Arman Tsarukyan regains UFC pound-for-pound ranking

While Arman Tsarukyan’s future with the UFC has looked uncertain in recent weeks, the latest rankings update has provided him a slight boost. Following Dana White’s comments about their relationship, the Armenian contender dropped out of the pound-for-pound list but has now returned to the top 15 after the rankings were reshuffled.

For those unaware, speaking with the media after UFC 326, Dana White had some serious words to share about the relationship between Arman Tsarukyan and the UFC.

“I’m not thrilled with Arman right now, and there’s a lot of different reasons,” he said. “It’s not just the stuff you see publicly.”

When another journalist pressed him on Arman Tsarukyan’s post-match brawl with Georgio Poullas following RAF 6, the UFC CEO declined to back his fighter.

“No, listen, there’s plenty of guys that wrestle that have been respectful with the guys they wrestled,” Dana White said. “And I understand there was some back-and-forth with both of those guys.

“But where there’s smoke there’s fire, and Arman has been smoking a lot lately.”

So, after such words, the drop in the rankings only added to the belief that his standing with the promotion had taken a hit. However, the new update repositioned Tsarukyan at No. 15 after changes caused by recent results, such as Charles Oliveira’s win over Max Holloway, which saw ‘Blessed’ drop out of the list.

Even though Arman Tsarukyan’s return to the rankings doesn’t change the uncertainty around his title shot, the update shows his status hasn’t slipped significantly despite recent troubles. For now, the bigger question remains: when will the UFC finally put him back into the title picture?