Arman Tsarukyan has now won six fights in a row. He still does not have a title shot. That math stopped making sense a while ago.
Tsarukyan knocked Mauricio Ruffy out cold in the UFC 331 co-main event Saturday, finishing him from a standing clinch with a pair of elbows that landed with four seconds left in the first round. The first one did the damage. The second one was punctuation.
This Was Not a Close Fight
Ruffy came in as a legitimate test, a dangerous striker who had built real momentum at 155 pounds. He got a little under five minutes.
Tsarukyan closed the distance, tied him up, and turned the clinch into a weapon. Elbows from that position are one of the ugliest ways to lose a fight, and Ruffy never had the chance to reset. Tsarukyan held him up after the first elbow landed and threw again before the referee could get there.
The No. 2-ranked lightweight looked like a man annoyed at having to prove something he has already proven.
Justin Gaethje Has a Belt and No Opponent
Justin Gaethje is the UFC lightweight champion and has not scheduled a first title defense. Tsarukyan has beaten everyone the promotion has pointed him at and is riding a six-fight run at the top of the division.
There is no competing case to make. Whatever bookkeeping kept Tsarukyan out of the title picture before, it cannot survive a first-round knockout of a ranked contender on a pay-per-view co-main. He called for the shot in the cage, and he was right to.
Lightweight has a habit of eating its own. Contenders wait, the champion gets injured, a new name jumps the line, and suddenly the guy who earned it two years ago is fighting a gatekeeper again. Tsarukyan has already lived through a version of that.
The UFC Needs This Fight More Than He Does
Gaethje against Tsarukyan sells itself. It is the most violent striker in the division against the most complete athlete, and neither man has ever been in a boring fight. Put it on a numbered card and it headlines without help.
The alternative is another interim shuffle, another contender fight for a man who has run out of contenders, and a division that stalls out while the champion sits. That is how the UFC turns its best division into a holding pattern.
Tsarukyan has done the work. He has the win streak, the ranking, the finish and the crowd. The only thing left is for the promotion to book the obvious fight instead of finding a new reason to delay it.
If the belt means anything, the man who has beaten six straight top lightweights should get to fight for it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.