Isaac Dulgarian: Christian Rodriguez Was 'Lubed Up' at UFC Fight Night 239

Isaac Dulgarian accuses Christian Rodriguez of cheating pic.twitter.com/2MezwGR9AZ

— MMA Mania (@mmamania) March 17, 2024

Isaac Dulgarian has hurled some serious accusations at UFC Fight Night 239 opponent Christian Rodriguez after their featherweight bout on Saturday.

Dulgarian came out with guns blazing, ragdolling Rodriguez to win a 10-8 first round on all of the judges’ scorecards. While “The MidWest Choppa” continued his dominant grappling in the second frame, mounting over four minutes of control time, two of the judges bizarrely gave the round to Rodriguez.

Dulgarian was visibly exhausted in the final round, which Rodriguez went on to win 10-8 across all scorecards, securing a split-decision victory. Dulgarian feels he was unfairly dealt the first pro loss of his career.

“Hey guys, I appreciate the support man. I don’t really know what happened in this fight,” Dulgarian said in a video on his Instagram Stories. “I don’t feel like I lost this fight. And as you can tell, I’m not super banged up. Round 1, I scored a 10-8 across the scorecards. Round 2, I had about [four] minutes and 10 seconds of control time, really only ate one significant strike and somehow two of these judges gave him Round 2. And Round 3 obviously, I lost that round, wasn’t very optically pleasing. But it is what it is.”

Dulgarian also claims that he spent immense energy to control Rodriguez, who he claims was unnaturally slippery early in the fight.

“One thing I did notice though, I had to use a lot of strength and energy to keep this guy down,” Dulgarian wrote. “About three minutes into Round 1, I’m completely dry and this guy is shining. You know, I’ve grappled thousands of bodies and I know when people are cheating. This guy was lubed up, he had lotion on or something. And it is what it is man, I can’t really do anything about it.”