Dustin Poirier believes Charles Oliveira was on the verge of submitting Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300.
BMF champion Oliveira (37-11 MMA, 25-11 UFC) lost a split decision to Tsarukyan in a lightweight title eliminator in April 2024. In the first round, Oliveira caught Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in a deep guillotine choke, but Tsarukyan escaped.
While Tsarukyan was trying to fend off the choke, his shorts came off, and that's what Poirier theorizes cost Oliveira the submission win.
"Listen, it was a close fight, but they had a malfunction with the clothing that saved Arman," Poirier said on "Deep Waters" (h/t HexCombat). "I don't know how nobody else is talking about this. Coming from a guy who knows how to miss guillotines, he would have got that guillotine if
those shorts wouldn't have slipped off.
"The shorts slipped off and allowed him to get out of Charles' guard. He had a full guard, locked in guillotine. Arman started getting his hips down, his shorts came down, which allowed Charles' guard to come off, and it saved Arman. It saved him. Cheeks clapping, he would have been tapping."
Oliveira and Tsarukyan have been linked to a rematch at UFC 331 on Sept. 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles (Paramount+), although no official announcement has been made.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dustin Poirier explains what 'saved' Arman Tsarukyan in Charles Oliveira fight
