Arman Tsarukyan addresses wild conspiracy theory about injury that forced withdrawal from UFC 311
01/21/2025 05:11 AM
Arman Tsarukyan has shut down a crazy rumor about his injury.
The lightweight contender was supposed to face Islam Makhachev in a main event title fight at UFC 311, which took place at the Intuit Dome in California on Saturday night.
Unfortunately, he withdrew from the contest on Friday after hurting his back while cutting weight. Renato Moicano stepped in to replace him and was quickly submitted by Makhachev at UFC 311.
Arman Tsarukyan has now opened up about the injury that spoiled the biggest moment of his life and left him needing to fight his way back into Dana White's good books.
Arman Tsarukyan shuts down fan theory
During fight week, popular MMA interviewer Nina Daniele Marie – also known as Nina Drama – uploaded footage of her training with Tsarukyan on social media.
Once it was revealed that Tsarukyan got injured ahead of UFC 311, a section of fans pointed to a small snippet of Nina’s video and incorrectly claimed that was how the Armenian fighter got hurt.
It shows him balancing on his head while walking his legs around the mat and contorting in a way that would certainly cause a less flexible man to get injured.
"The way I just laughed thinking about how Arman Tsarukyan threw his back out trying to impress Nina Drama," former UFC middleweight Derek Brunson wrote alongside the footage after the UFC 311 reshuffle.
Many fans came to the same conclusion as Brunson, but their conspiracy theory has now been shut down by the man himself, who insists he does that exercise daily.
"No, that thing I'm doing like everyday for my warm-up," Tsarukyan said when Ariel Helwani asked him about rumors of his injury occurring during his training session with Nina Drama.
"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. I was training very hard during the week. I had good energy and no problems. It just happened when I started cutting weight.
"It's because of dehydration. Maybe because of that, it happened as well."
Nina Drama issues statement
Nina Drama took to social media after Tsarukyan's latest interview with Ariel Helwani.
The former Playboy model revealed what she went through when an angry section of the MMA community thought she played a role in the UFC 311 main event falling apart.
"I had a couple death threats from MMA fans after the news broke out that Arman Tsarukyan was injured," she captioned a video shared to her X page.
"Fans accusing me saying that he was injured during the filming of our fight vlog. My phone was blowing up all day. I didn't even respond because it was so ridiculous but also everytime I go to defend myself (and prove yall wrong) it doesn't even matter.
"MMA fans believe whatever fits their narrative best about me, they don't want the truth. Happy @arielhelwani asked this question. Appreciate it!"
