UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is not going to fight Arman Tsarukyan in October. As he is the Dana White-led promotion’s biggest Muslim star, the Dagestani was expected to fight on the UFC’s annual Abu Dhabi PPV card in October. However, Makhachev has suffered a hand injury, ruling him out of a possible UFC 308 main event bout against the official #1 lightweight title contender. The Dagestani champ’s coach, the legendary Javier Mendez, confirmed to Helen Yee Sports that Makhachev will not be back in October, but postulated some other possible return dates.

“Yes, he’s [Islam Makhachev’s] got a ligament injury and… he’s getting consultation from different doctors and we’ll see what they say he has to do. But yeah, no, he’s not going to be able to train to, you know, for a fight [in October]. So probably late December, or maybe January, I don’t know, depends what the UFC and them can come up with. But he’s definitely not going to be ready to fight in October
like people are hoping,” Mendez said in an interview on Yee’s YouTube channel.

His upcoming fight against Tsarukyan would not be the first time Makhachev had fought the Georgia native. On ‘Akhalkalakets’s UFC debut back in 2019, the current champ (who was still on the come-up) was his very first opponent. Even though Makhachev had no problems with Tsarukyan then, he has evolved and matured as a fighter and is expected to be an uphill task for the Dagestani this time around.

In the absence of Makhachev, however, it seems that the UFC has decided to rematch Tsarukyan against another lightweight contender for UFC 308.

UFC eyeing interim title bout for UFC 308 after Islam Makhachev ruled out

Arman Tsarukyan fought and defeated former champion and UFC’s most successful finisher, Charles Oliveira on the UFC 300 anniversary mega-card in April this year. After three rounds of tough fighting, ‘Akhalkalakets’ emerged victorious (and the next official title contender) with a split decision victory over ‘Do Bronx’.

With Makhachev out of the way, the UFC is reportedly looking to have the two top-ranked lightweights rematch on UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, but this time for the interim 155-pound title. If true, this, of course, would mean that Tsarukyan would have to yet again fight for a title shot, and may lose his position in the division if he loses.

On the other hand, Oliveira, too, was robbed of a rematch with Makhachev on last year’s Abu Dhabi card, UFC 294. Booked to fight the Dagestani after their UFC 280 clash, ‘Do Bronx’ was forced to pull out after suffering a huge gash on his forehead weeks from the October ’24 clash.

A rematch with Tsarukyan would give him another shot at getting to the front of the line for a lightweight title clash. Who do you think should headline UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi? Let us know your views in the comments below.