Hours away from his first UFC title alternative, Arman Tsarukyan was compelled 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 damage. 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 may probably be positioned on “insane weight-cutting” measures that resulted in ‘Ahalkalakets’ sustaining the unexpected damage.
“You don’t get Arman Tsarukyan having again issues when you don’t have insane weight reducing,” Barnett stated. “I really imagine that in doing his weight lower, he most likely did hit an enormous again spasm out of nowhere that fully took him without warning. And was dangerous sufficient that, one, it was clearly going to affect his capability to chop weight, so how is he gonna make the load class? And, two, may could possibly be extreme sufficient that he wouldn’t really feel as much as with the ability to compete the subsequent day.”
“And this all comes from combating beneath a ruleset that encourages you to sport the system as a result of everyone seems to be doing it and there’s no approach round it actually.”
Dana White Implies Tsarukyan may have competed at UFC 311
Barnett isn’t the primary individual to suggest that there was one thing a bit of suspicious behind Tsarukyan’s withdrawal.
In the course of 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 “return 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 stroll,” not to mention compete on Saturday evening in Los Angeles, however is greater than prepared to work his approach again up the contender’s ladder if crucial.