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Arman Tsarukyan recently detailed when he suffered his back injury and how it resulted in his withdrawal from his lightweight title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311 last Saturday. It was an unfortunate injury and cost him an opportunity to avenge his loss to Makhachev and accomplish his goal of becoming champion.
The Armenian's withdrawal came as a big surprise and ended up being more of a significant blow when Dana White confirmed he wouldn't be receiving a title shot in his octagon return. In addition, there will be no guarantees that Tsarukyan will fight Makhachev as the reigning lightweight champion has hinted at moving up to 170 pounds in hopes of becoming a two-division UFC champion.
During his latest appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, the No.1 ranked lightweight detailed when his back injury occurred and when he felt as though he was unable to compete. Tsarukyan mentioned that it occurred after his final training session and did his best to mask the pain to no avail as his weight cut made it worse:
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"Wednesday after training, I went to sleep and I started to feel my lower back, and I couldn't sleep all night and thought something happened. [I] took some painkiller but it didn't help. The next day, I thought it's going to be good and after [the] press conference I'm going to start my weight cut. And when I started my weight cut, I was doing [the] bike and like, that moment, my back was stuck and I couldn't move."
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Check out Arman Tsarukyan's comments below:
Arman Tsarukyan confirms UFC doctors assessed him prior to withdraw
In addition to detailing when he began experiencing pain from his back injury, Arman Tsarukyan confirmed that UFC doctors assessed him prior to making his decision to withdraw from his lightweight title bout.
During the aforementioned clip, Tsarukyan stated that he didn't immediately withdraw from his bout and monitored his pain prior to the Friday morning weigh-ins:
"UFC doctors came and started to help me do some PT and they said, 'You are going to be alright in the morning. If you are going to feel the same, you can continue [to] cut weight'...I was like, six pounds left when I went to sleep and the pain was [the] same...It's just like, I cannot continue."
Check out Arman Tsarukyan's statement after withdrawing from UFC 311 below:
