Ilia Topuria didn’t have to fight at UFC Qatar to feel the walls of his division closing in. All he had to do was sit cageside and watch Arman Tsarukyan turn a high-stakes main event into a dominant, two-round suffocation of Dan Hooker, the kind of win that forces a champion to pay attention whether he wants to or not. And as if that wasn’t enough pressure, another prominent voice has now chimed in to support Tsarukyan’s claims for a title shot against ‘El Matador’!

Against Hooker, Tsarukyan didn’t ease back into competition; he tore into it with knees, elbows, a perfectly timed takedown, and a suffocating top game. By Round 2, he had Hooker trapped in an arm-triangle choke, squeezing until “The Hangman” tapped at 3:34. It wasn’t just a win. It was a statement

Khamzat Chimaev shows his support for Arman Tsarukyan’s title shot against Ilia Topuria

And with the lightweight champion Ilia Topuria in the building, Tsarukyan wasted no time making sure the message reached him loud and clear as he exclaimed, “Ilia, if you’re here, come on. We’ve got to face off. There is just one contender, No. 1, it’s Arman Tsarukyan.”

That’s exactly where the night took its sharpest turn, and where Khamzat Chimaev stepped in. A backstage clip shared by Championship Rounds on X later captured the middleweight champion’s reaction as he stated, “The performance was crazy, crazy like we expect. I knew it was going to be finish, but I wanted to wait, to not say that. I was like, like we expect it, you know. Arman is the best. So he’s the number one. He’s the champion. I believe this guy is one of the best fighters in the world. He has to fight for the belt.”

When a reigning middleweight champion says you’re already “the champion,” that’s pressure Topuria can’t ignore. But does the Spanish-Georgian fighter see things the same way? After all, Khamzat Chimaev hasn’t been quiet about where he stands.

All fight week, he’d been glued to Arman Tsarukyan’s side, cornering him, protecting him in case he crossed paths with Topuria, who was also in Qatar for his brother Aleksandre’s fight, and openly dismissing Hooker as someone “not on our level.” Their relationship stretches beyond training partners. Chimaev has even credited Tsarukyan with helping him during his five-round war with Dricus du Plessis earlier this year, saying the Armenian lightweight “boosted me” and “supported me with words.”

As such, UFC Qatar was payback, and this time, it was Chimaev boosting Arman Tsarukyan’s title push. So, the UFC now finds itself with a brewing collision: a dominant No. 1 contender, a confident champion, and a middleweight king adding gasoline to the fire. But, there is one name who is determined to get the first crack at ‘El Matador’s belt!

Paddy Pimblett wants the UFC to capitalise on the “storyline” between him and Topuria

If Arman Tsarukyan’s win and Khamzat Chimaev’s endorsement tightened the spotlight on Ilia Topuria, Paddy Pimblett is determined to drag it back toward himself. And unlike the quiet, methodical climb Tsarukyan has taken, Pimblett’s approach is loud, impatient, and rooted in a feud years in the making.

For ‘The Baddy’, the waiting has gone on long enough. Speaking to JNMedia recently, he didn’t hide his irritation about the lack of movement around Topuria’s first defense. With a massive $7.7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount beginning next year and Topuria expected to headline the opening event, the Brit sees the perfect moment slipping away.

According to him, “Me and Topuria’s got the storyline built in it’s all there. It’s half nice for me that he’s got the belt even though I don’t like him and I rather he not be a two-division champ, it’s better for me that he won it because if Charles had won I would have definitely had to fight someone else first.”

Their rivalry started online when Paddy Pimblett insulted Georgian fighters, escalated during a hotel altercation in 2022 where he threw hand sanitizer at Topuria, and continued through tense face-offs, including one in Las Vegas after Topuria beat Oliveira. Dana White dismissed it at the time, saying it wasn’t the fight, but Pimblett believes the narrative has only grown stronger.

Pimblett further shared, “But with Ilia having the belt it’s just a storyline that’s already set up and ready to go. I don’t know why it’s not already announced and made and written in a contract. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks.”

As such, Ilia Topuria now stands at the crossroads of merit and spectacle. Does he face the No. 1 contender backed by the sport’s scariest enforcer? Or does he settle years of hostility with one of the UFC’s biggest personalities? Either route comes with risk, and either route promises fireworks, but who would you like to see him face next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!