Arman Tsarukyan has been named as the backup opponent for a shot at the vacant UFC Lightweight championship title.
Dana White confirmed the news at the post-fight press conference for UFC Baku over the weekend.
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“Arman is the backup for that fight. He will come to Las Vegas, he has got to make weight, and he’ll be a backup,” said White.
“Then we see how it plays out and we go from there.”
The announcement comes following Tsarukyan’s withdrawal, due to a back injury, from a scheduled title bout against then-champ Islam Makhachev earlier this year.
Renato Moicano, who at the time held the longest active win streak amongst all fighters in the top 10 in the lightweight division, stepped up to replace Tsarukyan.
Following Makhachev’s win at UFC 311, the UFC lightweight championship has remained vacant.
That bout broke the record for the most consecutive lightweight title defences in UFC history, although that would be the Russian’s final defence of the belt.
The clash between Topuria and Oliveira is set to determine a new 155lbs champion on June 28, following Makhachev’s decision to vacate his throne.
Makhachev was initially planned to face former world champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 317, but he vacated his UFC lightweight title in order to make the step up to the welterweight division.
Makhachev is now gearing up to take a shot at becoming the latest member of the UFC’s two-division champion club.
Before taking this fight, Topuria made the same move to vacate his UFC featherweight belt.
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Following his bout with Max Holloway at UFC 308, Topuria vacated his title in order to make the step up to lightweight with the hopes of fighting Makhachev.
Despite losing to Topuria in the former champion’s final title defence, Alexander Volkanovski beat Diego Lopes to win the vacant title.
The UFC tend to favour backup fighters when in matchmaking situations, with this giving the 28-year-old a chance to return to the ring.
The organisation has said that Tsarukyan would need to win at least one more fight in order to return to title contention.
The number one contender at lightweight will now have the opportunity to do so, should there be any last-minute incidents in the lead up to UFC 317.
The scheduled fight will currently pit the two top contenders against one another, not long after Topuria has made the jump up to lightweight.
Should Topuria pull out, Tsarukyan will get a second crack at Oliveira who defeated via split decision last year in a title eliminator bout.