Ilia Topuria: "I could kill him there"- Arman Tsarukyan shuts down Ilia Topuria’s claim of a backstage slap and calls the story fabricated

Arman Tsarukyan pushed back hard on Ilia Topuria’s latest claims of slapping him during a brief run-in. The brief clip that Topuria posted on Nov. 23 was framed as evidence of a backstage slap during a UFC event in Qatar.

Topuria used the post to paint himself as the aggressor and to portray Tsarukyan as someone who folds in real confrontations. The Armenian did not let that narrative brew for long.

He explained that the interaction happened months earlier in Baku and that it was nothing more than a friendly greeting. He said Topuria approached him with a smile, exchanged pleasantries and acted warm in person before shifting into provocation once the cameras were involved.

Tsarukyan called the entire story an attempt to create manufactured tension and suggested that Topuria is building fiction to distract from avoiding a fight. Speaking in a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, he said:

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“He just came, hugged me, and then he’s saying this is a slap. If it was a slap, I’m not a man anymore. If he slapped me while I’m laughing, what are you talking about? I could kill him there right away. For us, if someone slaps you and you don’t do anything, you’re not a man. You’re zero in this life. You got to forget you’re a fighter or you’re working or you can get to jail. You got to slap it back. I don’t want to talk about that."

He added:

"It was in June in Baku. He came and said, ‘Hi bro, how are you, this media thing is just for the media,’ and he hugged me. Then he started talking after that. I said, ‘Bro, you’re such a fake guy. In person, you behave like a good guy, and on Twitter, you start talking. I’m not fake like you. If I want to say something to you, I’ll say the same thing. He is one person in real life and another on social media.’"

Check out Arman Tsarukyan's comments below (18:50):

Arman Tsarukyan questions Ilia Topuria’s willingness to defend his belt

Arman Tsarukyan also touched upon Ilia Topuria’s inactivity and said the champion looks like a man searching for the safest possible option. He noted that Topuria has been out of action since June, while other contenders have remained busy.

He also argued that a jump to welterweight makes no sense until the lightweight belt is defended. Speaking in the aforementioned interview with Ariel Helwani after his second-round submission win against Dan Hooker at UFC Qatar, Tsarukyan said:

"He is trying to find an easy fight to defend the belt, and the UFC is trying to make him a superstar. He cannot move to 170 because he hasn’t defended the title. He has to prove he is a real champion.”