Sunday night’s main event was a big one in Arman Tsarukyan’s division, but he was not around to watch it.
Plenty of fans believe the Armenian has been wrongly passed by for a title shot by the UFC, with many insisting ahead of the event at the White House that Tsarukyan should be next in line for whoever won.
Justin Gaethje beat Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 to successfully upgrade his interim title to undisputed status. If he opts against potential retirement and looks to make a title defense, Tsarukyan is expected to be the opponent.
But despite his next rival likely being decided by the result, Tsarukyan was prevented from tuning in and had to wait hours to find out who won in Washington, DC.
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Arman Tsarukyan missed Justin Gaethje’s UFC Freedom 250 win over Ilia Topuria
Tsarukyan was initially the White House backup and was expected to weigh in as the replacement should either Topuria or Gaethje drop out.
Instead, the Armenian lightweight was in Missouri for another appearance on the Real American Freestyle wrestling mats.
Tsarukyan beat Tony Ferguson at RAF 10 last Saturday, and it appears that his travels after completing that assignment stopped him from being able to tune into one of the greatest fights and upsets in recent memory.
During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Tsarukyan revealed that the lack of WiFi on his plane meant he was in the dark about how Topuria vs Gaethje had played out for eight hours.
“I couldn’t watch the fight live,” Tsarukyan revealed.
“They didn’t have WiFi on the plane, and I was just sitting and saying, ‘No way, how I can miss this flight.’ For 8 hours, I was thinking, ‘What happened, what happened?’
“When we landed my friend was like, ‘Justin won.’ I couldn’t believe, to be honest. I was happy,” he added.
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During the same interview, Tsarukyan told the UFC he must be next for a shot at the lightweight title, having previously been snubbed this year when the promotion booked Gaethje against Paddy Pimblett for the interim gold.
Whether or not the UFC will finally give the green light for that given Tsarukyan’s continued antics outside of the Octagon remains to be seen.