Dan Hooker Slams Arman Tsarukyan for ‘Strange’ UFC 311 Withdrawal: ‘Daddy Can’t Buy You a Backbone’
Dan Hooker can’t make sense of Arman Tsarukyan’s sudden withdrawal from UFC 311.
Mere hours before he was scheduled to step on the scale for his lightweight title tilt against reigning champion Islam Makhachev, ‘Ahalkalakets’ informed the promotion that he would not be able to compete citing a back injury.
Renato Moicano ultimately stepped up to the plate and slid into the main event slot left behind by Tsarukyan, but the alleged injury has left a lot of people scratching their heads. Particularly after UFC CEO Dana White implied that the Armenian could have fought in Los Angeles.
Dan Hooker questions how you get injured ‘on your day off’
‘The Hangman’ echoed a similar sentiment during a recent interview with Submission Radio, questioning how exactly Tsarukyan suffered such a devastating back injury when all he should have been doing was cutting weight.
“That’s our sport. It’s never smooth sailing,” Hooker said. “How are you getting injured on your day off? I’ve got no idea. I thought it was pretty strange, bro. To get such a severe injury that you need to pull out when you’re cutting weight, you know?
“It must be a severe injury. I don’t know how you would pass up on that opportunity. I obviously saw Dana White just say that he ain’t getting the title shot next, and he’s going to have to work his way back up to the belt. You know, Daddy can’t buy you a backbone, can he?”
Perhaps we’ll never know the full truth, but there are plenty of theories out there. Former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett placed the blame on “insane weight cutting” during an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.
Others have suggested that Tsarukyan may have legitimately injured himself while showing UFC interviewer Nina-Marie Daniele some intense wrestling and stretching drills, which appeared to strain his backbone and neck, though Tsarukyan and Daniele have both attempted to pour cold water on that claim.
“No, that thing I’m doing every day as part of my warm-up, so if I had a problem during training camp, how could I do this exercise? You know, I didn’t feel anything; I was good and ready,” Tsarukyan told Helwani. “I was training very hard, and during the week, I had good energy and no problems. It just happened, you know.”
