Poirier accuses TUF 34 finalist Uulu of flopping to secure disqualification win

Dustin Poirier has accused TUF 34 bantamweight champion Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu of deliberately exaggerating his response to an illegal strike in order to secure a disqualification victory at UFC Vegas 121 at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

Uulu was awarded the TUF 34 title after Mehemmedali Osmanli was disqualified for landing an illegal knee to a grounded opponent at 2:19 of the opening round. Reviewing the footage on his podcast Deep Water alongside Jorge Masvidal and Chris Weidman, Poirier argued that Uulu’s reaction shifted noticeably once he appeared to register that the referee was stepping in to stop the contest.

“Here, when he’s about to build up on a single leg, his brain starts working and he’s like, ‘Oh, I just won The Ultimate Fighter if I flop,’ and he flopped,” Poirier said. “Yeah, come on, this is the Oscars. That’s a flop.”

Masvidal backed Poirier’s reading of the sequence, while Weidman declined to take a firm position on whether Uulu’s reaction was genuine. On the replay discussed on the show, Uulu appeared to reach for Osmanli’s leg in the moments before the referee intervened — a detail Poirier pointed to as evidence that Uulu was not immediately incapacitated by the blow.

Osmanli himself has also publicly accused Uulu of overstating the effects of the illegal strike, adding a second voice to the controversy surrounding the finish.

The disqualification result stands, and Uulu is the official TUF 34 bantamweight champion. Whether the UFC takes any further action in response to the competing accounts of the finish remains to be seen.