Arman Tsarukyan: “[Michael] Chandler is nobody. UFC tried to make him a superstar” | BJPenn.com

Arman Tsarukyan does not rate Michael Chandler highly as a top level MMA fighter and indicated as much when he shot the former multi-time Bellator MMA champion in a recent interview. The conversation in question took place on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel as Tsarukyan addressed various topics in the wake of his recent victory over Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar.

One of those topics focused on the rumored UFC lightweight title fight featuring reigning 155-pound kingpin Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett, with talk of this possibly happening early next year. When asked by the former two-division UFC champion if he thinks Pimblett would have a thing for Topuria, with Cormier following up with a little joke about Pimblett’s win over Michael Chandler, Tsarukyan said:

“No way; not at all… Okay, how many people has Michael Chandler destroyed? He’s 40 years old. He’s had six losses, two wins in the UFC and he had about four…[fight] losing streak. [Chandler] is no one. UFC tried to make him Arturo Gatti. They wanted to make him a superstar, I don’t know. But yeah, he showed good fights, but he’s not an elite fighter. There are levels, you know, when you see it.

Arman Tsarukyan said he would end the DC interview if Cormier praised Pimblett

Arman Tsarukyan further underlined his feelings about Paddy Pimblett during the said conversation with Daniel Cormier from above by saying that he would immediately stop the chat if Cormier gave props to Pimblett. With Pimblett and Tsarukyan both having casual conversations about the title challengers, it stands to reason that this type of chatter will only increase in the coming weeks.

Tsarukyan showed no signs of any confidence that Pimblett could beat many of the bigger contenders at the top of the weight class, citing names like Charles Oliveira, Dan Hooker, Max Holloway and the retired Dustin Poirier as people ‘The Baddy’ wouldn’t beat.

Daniel Cormier seemed a bit surprised by these characterizations of Arman Tsarukyan, with the latter saying he would end the conversation with the former if DC went the route of giving positive feedback about Paddy Pimblett.