Why Did Diego Lopes Weigh-In Twice? Real Reason Behind Arman Tsarukyan’s Absence at White House

Ahead of the White House card, Dana White confirmed that Arman Tsarukyan would hold the backup position for the UFC Freedom 250 main event fight between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. However, Diego Lopes, who is already fighting Steve Garcia on the card in a featherweight bout, stunned everyone by weighing in as the official backup for the card’s headliner. With that, everyone was left scratching their heads and asking: What happened to Arman Tsarukyan?

With only a day left before the spectacle unfolds on the South Lawn, many have been wondering what exactly happened that led to such a significant shift in the backup position. Here’s all we know.

Diego Lopes replaces Arman Tsarukyan to become the official main event backup for UFC Freedom 250

At first, Diego Lopes appeared on the scale for his scheduled featherweight fight against Steve Garcia. The Brazilian-Mexican fighter comfortably made the divisional limit for a non-championship bout, weighing in at 146 lbs. Shortly afterward, the officials announced that he would weigh in once again as the backup for the UFC Freedom 250 main event.

About an hour later, he returned to step on the scale and successfully made 154 lbs wearing clothes and a cowboy hat as the backup for the Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje fight. Later, he confirmed that his team approached UFC CBO Hunter Campbell to take up the role because Arman Tsarukyan could no longer be available.

“People already know how I am,” Lopes said in a clip online. “I always like a challenge, and when we found out that Arman Tsarukyan isn’t coming anymore, we asked Hunter what we can do. We can offer to be the backup if you’d like; we are here.

“Then he said, ‘If you want to weigh in twice, no problem.’ I said I can do that. So we ended up weighing in twice, hydrated backup, and man, we made the weight. 146 pounds, let’s fight. And now we’re also going to make 154 pounds, and we are ready.”

With that, Diego Lopes has become the only fighter in UFC history to make weight twice in one day for two different weight classes in a single event.

That said, the mystery surrounding Arman Tsarukyan’s withdrawal stemmed from the Armenian clashing elsewhere on the same day as the UFC official weigh-ins.

Tsarukyan chose RAF over UFC Freedom 250 backup role   

Even though Arman Tsarukyan initially accepted the UFC White House backup role, he made it clear during the RAF 10 pre-fight press conference that he may not actually fulfill the required duties. Tsarukyan understood that both Gaethje and Topuria were likely to keep things intact for the headliner. Hence, the Armenian chose his RAF match against Tony Ferguson and also stated that he would be waiting for his opportunity to fight for the UFC belt.

“I have wrestling on June 13, we will see,” Tsarukyan said during the RAF 10 pre-fight press conference. “I’m a backup, but everything is going good, there’s two weeks left, so I think they’re going to fight, and I’m going to wait my chance.”

“No, I’m going to do RAF,” Tsarukyan clarified when asked about his obligations once again.

Staying true to his words, the UFC lightweight contender went on to face Tony Ferguson in the RAF 10 co-main event and defeated the former interim UFC champion via a 10-0 technical fall. Because of that commitment, Tsarukyan could not serve as the official backup, and Lopes ultimately took his place instead.

The Armenian has served as the official backup for a title fight before. Tsarukyan was designated the official backup for the lightweight championship fight between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 last year. He even weighed in successfully for it. The fight, though, went as planned, and Tsarukyan was left waiting on the sidelines. This likely contributed to his decision to step away this time around.

That said, with Diego Lopes now becoming the replacement backup for the main event, the UFC will be hoping that the headliner remains intact.

The post Why Did Diego Lopes Weigh-In Twice? Real Reason Behind Arman Tsarukyan’s Absence at White House appeared first on EssentiallySports.