MMA news: War of words between Ilia Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan continues
The highly sought after potential match-up between UFC lightweight stars Ilia Topuria and Arman Tsarukyan was fueled with added heat over the past week, with both having scathing words to say about one another.
Topuria stokes the fire
On a recent episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, released on April 21, lightweight king Topuria expressed plenty of venomous remarks when discussing the number-one lightweight contender.
“I’m really impressed with how dumb he is,” Topuria said on the show.
“He’s a r*tard. I don’t know, he looks like a kid. He’s a kid. His mentality. He’s dumb as f*ck.
“Everything I saw about him on the internet is embarrassing. F*ck Arman, who cares about him?
“The thing that I don’t like is when they play that they’re rich, and they show all that money.
“Bro, you’re not even rich. The only thing that you have is money, and you’re spending your father’s money, not even yours. You know what I mean. He’s a f*cking kid.”
Tsarukyan: ‘He’s jealous’
Naturally, the Armenian jumped at the nearest opportunity to respond to the lightweight champ.
On the same show, a few days later, he said: "He's jealous. Then he wants to say I'm nothing, and if UFC offer me him, he's not gonna take it because he wants to tell everyone in this world I'm not in his level.
“He was saying (Charles) Oliveira is good fighter, (Justin) Gaethje good fighter, Max Holloway good fighter, but he didn't say anything about me.
“How can it be? It's just a joke, you know?
"If you say something, you got to answer why, right?" Tsarukyan continued.
"... He said, 'I don't know.' So, he's the stupid guy, not me, because he doesn't even know like why I'm r*tard or dumb as f*ck."
‘He stands no chance against Islam’ says Tsarukyan
Topuria has previously expressed his willingness to move up another division, in search of a third belt to add to his legacy.
However, Tsarukyan believes the Georgian-Spaniard has no chance against current welterweight champ Islam Makhachev.
"If he moves up, it's OK," Tsarukyan said. "He's gonna move up and Islam's gonna kick his a*s, and he's gonna come down, and then I kick his a*s, and the UFC just release him."
The UFC’s most highly anticipated match-up
"We'll see when the fight happens," Tsarukyan added. "We'll see how I'm not gonna take him down. I can take down anybody.
“About that he's gonna break my jaw: whatever he wants to do. Just accept the fight.
“Why you ducking if you're super confident you can beat me so easy in the first round?
“So, just sign the contract after this fight, and don't move up and stay there - because I'm easy fight, why you wanna move up?
"... He behaves like he's untouchable and a superstar, but he's not. I'm gonna bring [him] back on the earth."
The exchange between the two stars only adds further hype to a fight fans believe would be criminal to not get made.
READ NEXT: NBA playoffs news: Houston Rockets bounce back in Game 4 to avoid sweep v Los Angeles Lakers
