#1 lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan caught some strays recently from fellow 155’er, Paddy Pimblett. ‘The Baddy’ ripped into the Armenian star with a rant, proving that there’s no love lost between the duo. Pimblett even took jibes at Tsarukyan’s decision to pull out of his title fight against Islam Makhachev, insinuating that the 28-year-old might have faked his injury.
Paddy Pimblett doesn’t rate Arman Tsarukyan, stating that the Armenian star had things easy in his life due to his rich father, who owns a construction business. ‘Ahalkalakets’ also claimed to have shocked his employer, Dana White, once when the 55-year-old saw him at UFC 300, leaving the event driving a Rolls-Royce. “Dana and Hunter arrived, and when they saw it, Dana said, ‘This is all yours? It doesn’t look like what we paid you for UFC 300,’” Tsarukyan stated during a recent interview.
However, his riches don’t seem to matter much to Paddy Pimblett, and he also pointed fingers at him for pulling out of UFC 311 by allegedly faking his injury, given that he had been doing some pretty unusual workouts. Videos of those workouts went viral on social media before the PPV in January as well.
“He’s just a little posh boy who’s had everything handed to him on a silver platter by his dad,” Paddy Pimblett stated on the ‘Full Send MMA’ podcast. “No [Tsarukyan did not get injured before UFC 311]. He’s a little b—h a–! That’s what you are, Arman. Little [inaudible] boy. He was doing them videos where he flips forward on his neck, and then he’s saying he’s got a bad back.”
‘The Baddy’ also seemed to have enjoyed the way Dana White made him go back “to the drawing board” and work his way up to a title shot once again. But he also warned that being in the UFC CEO’s bad graces may not end up well for him, especially because none of the members of the medical team at the UFC PI had shown any kind of red flags to ‘Ahalkalakets’ when it comes to his fitness before he decided to pull out of UFC 311, claiming that the nervousness of fighting Islam Makhachev may have got to him.
“Dana said it, didn’t he? Dana shot him down in an interview. I was like, ‘Woah, that’s heavy’. You don’t want the boss saying that about you,” Paddy Pimblett added. “They [the medical staff at the PI] never said to him, ‘You can’t fight.’ He decided he’s not gonna fight. So basically, Arman, you s–t your pants… That’s all you did. You farted and followed through and had s–t coming down your leg.”
MMA: UFC Fight Night – Austin – Dariush vs Tsarukyan Dec 2, 2023 Austin, Texas, USA Arman Tsarukyan blue gloves prior to the fight against Beneil Dariush red gloves during UFC Fight Night at Moody Center. Austin Moody Center Texas USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xDustinxSafranekx 20231202_szo_om2_0356
However, Islam Makhachev’s camp has a different take on Arman Tsarukyan’s injury. AKA head coach Javier Mendez appeared to back Tsarukyan when it came to the latter’s claims about blowing up his back. Let’s take a look at that front.
Team Khabib has supported Arman Tsarukyan’s injury claims
During a recent episode of Javier Mendez‘s YouTube podcast, the veteran MMA coach mentioned that he wasn’t entirely sure if Arman Tsarukyan could have competed that night at UFC 311 or not. But he’s not doubting the fact that he claims to be injured, claiming that the Armenian star could not make it to the weigh-ins since he had injured himself during the weight-cutting process. Mendez even sympathized with Tsarukyan for missing out on getting paid.
“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,” said AKA’s head coach. “So the poor guy didn’t end up getting paid anything.”
He also recalled having gone through a similar injury experience with Khabib Nurmagomedov, when ‘The Eagle’ was hospitalized because of weight-cutting prior to his UFC 209 fight. “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,” Javier Mendez added.
Well, there are always two sides to a coin, so you have what everyone has to say about Arman Tsarukyan’s injury situation. But what do you think really happened that forced him to pull out of UFC 311? Let us know in the comments down below.
The post Paddy Pimblett Confronts Arman Tsarukyan on Controversial Truth Behind Pulling Out of UFC 311 Islam Makhachev Fight appeared first on EssentiallySports.