"I wish the championship belt had been handed to me by my father."

On the night of January 18-19 Moscow time, UFC 311 will take place in Los Angeles, in the main event of which Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight belt against Arman Tsarukyan. The rivals fought each other back in 2019, and Islam won then. Tsarukyan is determined to take revenge, having seriously added to his weight in recent years. In an interview with Izvestia and Sport-Express, Arman talked about preparing for one of the most anticipated fights of the year.

- As far as I understand, Dustin Porier helped you in this training camp?

- No, he didn't. But he, when he was in the gym, he said: "If you need my help in any way - in sparring, in fighting - let me know."

- Did you ask him about Islam?

- No, I didn't ask him, because I watched the fight. What is there to ask? You can look in the fights.

- Why do you think Puryear couldn't do anything to him in boxing in 25 minutes, except that left in the fifth round? He took a jab to the eye in the first round.

- Because he put a lot of effort into his wrestling defense, and I think on the striking side.... No, why? He got hit a lot of times, Porier. What I see in the fight is that he had a one-punch series: left, right. He wasn't hitting attacks that needed to be punched. Let's say a jab, another jab. He would throw one jab and then he would throw his left hook. Maybe he should have hit two or three jabs, to get closer. You know, it's easy to talk like that now, but when you're in a fight, it's different.

- You knocked out Giagos with your left and Dariush with your right. In which hand do you have more knockout power?

- Left.

- Left lateral?

- Left lateral, yes. But for a lefty, a right side kick.

- You've worked with Adriano Martins, and it was his right side kick that put Islam down. Have you tried to understand how he hits that punch? Do you like the mechanics of that punch?

- I will tell you unequivocally that he has a crazy punch. It's not just a lackey punch like people say. He hit me like that twice in sparring. I don't think anybody's ever hit me like that in sparring. He hit me once, my eye was blue. I was coughing blood for two weeks afterward.

- So it's the power of the punch?

- He's got a crazy punch by nature, he hits very hard right lateral and left straight. It's just crazy!

- So it's no surprise that he put Islam down?

- No surprise at all! I thought it was a licky punch, but when I sparred... he gave me a right side kick! I felt it's better to box long distance with this guy.

- Khabib Nurmagomedov will be in Islam's corner, he will be telling him in Russian, because Islam is a Laketian and Khabib is an Avar, they have different languages. Do you think you should think about countering his prompting? Or do you hear nothing during the fight except your corner?

- I can hear, but they probably brought a Laketian who knows Avar, or there will probably be a Laketian in the corner who will listen to Khabib's cues in Russian and speak Islam in Lak. Or code words - "fight", I don't know how it will be in Avar, but probably two or three words you can learn.

- If you beat Islam, will you become the greatest lightweight in UFC history?

- No, of course not.

- Although he has a win streak of 14 wins in a row. It's worth five wins to take that scalp, I guess.

- Well, that doesn't say anything on paper. It's just a regular lightweight who - yeah, he's defended [the title] a lot of times, but ... You have to defend at least four times to be the greatest lightweight ever.

- So you have a serious bar - four times.

- My goal is to win the belt first, and then I don't know what's going to happen.

- Let's say Dana White couldn't attend this tournament and you had the opportunity to pick the person who would put the belt on you. Who would you pick? Anyone at all.

- My father.

- Is he coming to L.A.?

- He can't get a visa. He's applied four times and been denied four times. I don't know. They're afraid he'll move here or something.

- They'll be in Krasnodar with the whole family watching?

- Maybe they'll put a TV set in some restaurant and watch. It's dangerous to watch at home. You could blow up the whole house.

- Your father is a wealthy man. How many fights do you have to win to become richer than your father?

- A lot (smiles).

- By the way, do you have a stake with the pay-per-view for this fight? Considering Islam is number one pound-for-pound and you could ask.

- No, and I couldn't say anything because I needed a title fight. So I'm fighting on a regular contract.

- I can't help but ask about the fight with Khamzat Chimaev. How tough is he, how hard is it to fight him?

- Even tougher than everyone thinks. He is really a very good fighter, his striking is also good, I sparred with him many times. He presses very well, very strong. Even if you look at him, you can't tell he's that strong. But when he gets a grip on you, it's hard to get rid of him.

- Do you think Islam Makhachev would be able to give him a single TKO?

- Maybe he could, but it would have been impossible to hold him down or take him out.

- Islam and Khabib have had thousands of sparring sessions, and the videos of those sparring sessions have never been published. How interested would you be in getting those sparring sessions if you measure the interest in money? Would you pay $10k for two 25-minute sparring sessions between Khabib and Islam?

- No, but I have a rough idea of what those sparring sessions look like.

- How?

- I think Khabib, when he was at his peak, no one would have stopped him.

- But $10k isn't worth it?

- No, what's the point? First of all, to buy such sparring, it would be necessary to pay not $10 thousand, but 500 thousand, probably. And with Khabib's capabilities, maybe even more.

- Karo Parisyan and your trainer Roma Kalantaryan claim that Georges St. Pierre is part Armenian. He told them that himself. It turns out that you might not be the first Armenian UFC champion....

- I don't know, honestly, about that situation, but if that's the case, it's very good that he has Armenian roots. You see how crazy his genetics are. Maybe it's because of that. I will be only happy if Armenian fighters win titles, get into UFC, because we are very few, I would like to have more good athletes. Because even to put together a team... we have young people going in the wrong direction. I would like to have more good athletes.

- Merab wants you to dance shalakho with him in case of victories at UFC 311, as in "Mimino". Are you ready to dance with him?

- I'm not a good dancer, but I'll do it sometime for sure.