Arman Tsarukyan: “[Michael] Chandler is Nobody. UFC tried to make him a superstar”

Arman Tsarukyan does not rate Michael Chandler highly as a top-level MMA fighter and indicated as such when blasting 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 fielded several subjects in the wake of his recent submission win over Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar.

One of those subjects centred on the rumored UFC lightweight title fight with reigning 155-pound kingpin Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett, with rumblings about that potentially happening early next year. When asked by the former two-division UFC champion if he thinks Pimblett would have anything for Topuria, with Cormier following up with a small quip about Pimblett’s win over Michael Chandler, Tsarukyan said,

“No way; at all… Ok, how many people destroyed Michael Chandler? He is 40 years old. He has 6 losses, 2 wins in the UFC, and he had like a 4-[fight] losing streak. [Chandler] is nobody. UFC tried to make him Arturo Gatti. They wanted to do him like him a superstar, I don’t know. But yeah, he showed good fights, but he isn’t an elite fighter. There is levels, you know, when you see.”

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

Arman Tsarukyan further underscored his sentiments about Paddy Pimblett during the referenced conversation with Daniel Cormier from above by saying he would stop the chat instantly if Cormier gave props to Pimblett. With Pimblett and Tsarukyan both being in loose title challenger talks, it makes sense that this kind of banter would only stand to ramp up more in the coming weeks.

Tsarukyan did not indicate any confidence that Pimblett could beat many of the bigger contenders near the top of the weight class and mentioned names like Charles Oliveira, Dan Hooker, Max Holloway, and the retired Dustin Poirier as people that ‘The Baddy’ would not beat.

Daniel Cormier seemed a bit taken aback by these characterizations from Arman Tsarukyan, with the latter saying he would end the call with the former if DC were to go the route of giving any positive feedback about Paddy Pimblett.