At 3:19pm ET this afternoon Dana White sent the following message via Twitter:
Karo Parisyan Off Saturday’s Event; Out of UFC
Karo Parisyan has fucked over the UFC, the fans and his opponent again!!! He will not be fighting saturday or ever again in the UFC!!
This led to a quick reaction from the MMA fanbase to know what the situation was. White replied at about 3:30pm:
Pulled out of the fight the day before weigh ins again with a laundry list of excuses!!! Let the press ask karo why! Let him explain.
Sports Illustrated’s Josh Gross stated that Karo refused to answer any questions but did confirm that he had pulled out of the bout.
This spells the end to Karo’s time in the UFC, and a rocky tenure it was. At various points throughout his time with the promotion he was in line for a title shot (which he never received), pulled out of a fight due to panic attacks, won a fight which then got overturned due to a positive drug test, pleaded with the state athletic commission to not punish him for the drug test, and now pulled out of a fight at the last minute.
There is currently no word on if the promotion will make any effort to find Dustin Hazelett a replacement opponent on only two days notice. The promotion does have a history of paying it’s fighters their show and win bonus money in similar situations so one can assume Dustin will be taken care of.
We’ll have more information on the story as it becomes available.
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