Despite Idolizing Khabib Nurmagomedov, Arman Tsarukyan Ranks Him Below Jon Jones in His UFC GOAT List- Here’s Why

Despite his legendary status, Khabib Nurmagomedov does not make Arman Tsarukyan’s list of Top 3 MMA fighters. Although the Armenian fighter idolizes ‘The Eagle’ inside the octagon, he has a different view when it comes to the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) conversation. Nurmagomedov is always a name that pops up in the GOAT conversation alongside Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Demetrious Johnson. However, Tsarukyan is very clear about who is on his list.

The Armenian fighter is now the top-ranked contender in the lightweight division and is just biding his time till he can challenge for the title. He recently appeared on Michael Bisping’s YouTube channel for an interview, where he claimed that Jon Jones was the GOAT among all MMA fighters. Tsarukyan even insisted that he would probably put Nurmagomedov at number 5, saying,

“If you see the skills, it’s completely different level of skills. Khabib can’t strike like Jones..If you gonna see like completely MMA fighter, it’s Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson, and GSP.”

Although Tsarukyan gave Nurmagomedov enough credit and praised his ground game, he claimed ‘The Eagle’ did not defend his belt enough to be in the GOAT conversation. Instead, ‘Ahalkalakets‘ believes the likes of Jon Jones and GSP are more complete fighters, who don’t lack in any category.

While Tsarukyan pushed Khabib down to rank 5 in his list, he will soon be taking on The Eagle’s mentee, Islam Makhachev. Recently, ‘Ahalkalakets‘ called Makhachev out after the latter requested a fight on short notice.

Arman Tsarukyan calls out Islam Makhachev for looking to fight him on short notice

It is only a matter of time before Arman Tsarukyan and Islam Makhachev will get to lock horns. Following his UFC 300 victory, the organization offered Tsarukyan the fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302.

However, Tsarukyan turned down the offer, and Makhachev responded by claiming he was not surprised that ‘Ahalkalakets‘ did not want to fight on short notice. Naturally, the #1 contender was not going to let that slide, so he took to X to explain the ‘truth’,

“The truth is that you want to fight me on short notice to have an extra advantage. It won’t happen again though. When was the last time you fought 2 times in 6 weeks?”

Arman Tsarukyan insisted that Islam Makhavchev wanted an edge by making him fight on short notice. Yet, instead of making the same mistake again, ‘Ahalkalakets‘ has chosen to wait and avenge his previous loss against the champion when the time is right.