Hours away from his first UFC title alternative, Arman Tsarukyan was pressured to bow out of his light-weight headliner with Islam Makhachev.
Tsarukyan in the end withdrew from his UFC 311 headliner towards the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ citing a again harm. Nonetheless, some have advised that there could also be extra to the Armenian’s exit than what he’s letting on.
Throughout an in-studio look on Monday’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Present, former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett advised the blame might probably be positioned on “insane weight-cutting” measures that resulted in ‘Ahalkalakets’ sustaining the unexpected harm.
“You don’t get Arman Tsarukyan having back problems if you don’t have insane weight cutting,” Barnett mentioned. “I truly believe that in doing his weight cut, he probably did hit a huge back spasm out of nowhere that completely took him by surprise. And was bad enough that, one, it was obviously going to impact his ability to cut weight, so how is he gonna make the weight class? And, two, could could be severe enough that he wouldn’t feel up to being able to compete the next day.”
“And this all comes from fighting under a ruleset that encourages you to game the system because everyone is doing it and there’s no way around it really.”
Dana White Implies Tsarukyan might have competed at UFC 311
Barnett isn’t the primary particular person to suggest that there was one thing a bit suspicious behind Tsarukyan’s withdrawal.
Through the UFC 311 post-fight press convention, CEO Dana White made it clear that he by no means needs to encourage a fighter to compete injured earlier than revealing that ‘Ahalkalakets’ must “go back to the drawing” board if he hopes to get one other crack on the 155-pound crown.
Tsarukyan has since snapped again at White throughout his personal interview with Helwani, claiming he “couldn’t walk,” not to mention compete on Saturday night time in Los Angeles, however is greater than keen to work his method again up the contender’s ladder if essential.
