This year could have given us arguably the greatest lightweight matchup in recent memory with Arman Tsarukyan and Islam Makhachev fighting for the second time. Indeed, the Armenian was touted as the Dagestani champ’s toughest test to date, given that they’d fought once before and ‘Akhalkalakets’ gave Makhachev a tough fight. But alas, that didn’t up happening due to Tsarukyan’s back injury, because of which he had to pull out of the bout at the 11th hour. Worse for him, he lost his opportunity at UFC gold. Moreover, Dana White isn’t granting him an immediate title shot on his return. Surprisingly, amid all of this, Javier Mendez cleared the confusion surrounding the controversial pullout and defended Tsarukyan as well.
The Armenian star had actually let the UFC management know about his injury hours before the weigh-in event started. This was the reason why he faced skepticism, and Javier Mendez doesn’t seem to deny the notion of the Armenian fighter facing severe weight-cutting issues. He stated that Tsarukyan missed weight because of an injury while cutting weight, which deemed him unable to compete.
“He actually missed weight because he didn’t get to the scale, but the reason why he missed weight is because he had an injury in the process of losing weight,” Javier Mendez stated on the Javier & Mo Show. The AKA head coach also sympathized with Arman Tsarukyan because his injury not only made him pull out of the fight but also lose out on a big payday from the UFC CEO, Dana White.
Doubling down on the fact that Tsarukyan’s injury was indeed real, Mendez further stated, “He would have went out there and weighed in and he would have got paid because you got to understand [that] if he was able to weigh in, he’d have weighed in anyways. Just wouldn’t have been able to fight for the title, but, at least, he’d have got paid still.” He continued, “So the poor guy didn’t end up getting paid anything. So there’s no reason that I would think someone logically would go out there, work that hard, and all of a sudden, pull out the night before because he didn’t make weight. No way. It was a legit injury.”
Credits: Imago
To some context to the situation, Javier Mendez reminded us how Khabib Nurmagomedov fell victim to the same situation as Arman Tsarukyan. One of the biggest misses in Dana White’s promotion career was making the fight between Tony Ferguson and ‘The Eagle’ happen, as the plans for that fight fell off a staggering five times. Among those five times, the clash between the two lightweight legends was once canceled due to Khabib’s weight-cutting issues.
At UFC 209, it seemed like we would get the fight that the fans had been waiting for a long time, but Khabib Nurmagomedov had to be hospitalized. The hospitalization, caused by the weight-cutting process, happened due to the 29-0 legend suffering severe abdominal pain and dehydration. Hence, Javier Mendez wasn’t surprised when Arman Tsarukyan did the same recently because they made huge weight cuts to make it to 155 pounds. “It happened to Khabib. Same thing. Same thing. All of a sudden he’s cutting weight and all of a sudden, due to the drastic weight cut, some of these guys do, injuries happen. This is what happened to Arman,” Mendez added.
However, Arman Tsarukyan plans to make it back into the title even if he isn’t getting an immediate rematch. After UFC 313 got wrapped up, the Armenian star mentioned three options Dana White could consider for his journey to the top of the lightweight division. Let’s take a look at what he had to say.
Arman Tsarukyan lays down three options for his next fight
Arman Tsarukyan is sure that just one win will help him get back that title shot against Islam Makhachev once again. However, it’s important to note that quite a few contenders are waiting in line for a title shot, including Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje, who recently doubled down on wanting a title fight. The latter is on his final run in the promotion, desperate to win a fight for the belt. But then again, Ilia Topuria has also made his way into the lightweight division and is eyeing a title fight as well.
Tsarukyan is only open to taking on any of the three aforementioned contenders, but he strongly believes that Dana White may not be considering Ilia Topuria as his next opponent. “I want someone from top five like Gaethje or Oliveira. Gaethje wants to fight for the title, so it makes sense to fight with me because nobody is going to give him title fight. It’s not going to be fair that he’s going to get the title fight. So he’s got to beat me or Oliveira to get that title fight.” There’s Ilia, too, but I think they’re going to give me Oliveira or Gaethje or maybe title fight,” Arman Tsarukyan told MMA Junkie.
The discussions surrounding Arman Tsarukyan‘s UFC 311 pullout have subsided of late, but what do you think of Javier Mendez’s explanation? Do you agree with Team Khabib’s head coach? Drop your comments below.
The post Team Khabib Reveals Truth Behind Arman Tsarukyan Pulling Out of Islam Makhachev UFC 311 Fight Citing Back Injury appeared first on EssentiallySports.
