Makhachev Vs. Tsarukyan Predictions – ‘He Is Just On Another Level’

Islam Makhachev faces Arman Tsarukyan this weekend at UFC 311, as fighters gave their predictions.
Makhachev defends his UFC Lightweight Title for the fourth time. Islam secured the title with a win over Charles Oliveira. He defended the belt successfully by beating Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 in his last fight. He submitted Dustin in the final round. Islam has spoken about wanting to move up to welterweight to chase another title. Belal Muhammad currently holds that belt. The pair are very close, as Belal has trained with Islam’s trainer Khabib Nurmagomedov.
But Islam has said he wants to be a two-weight world champion, meaning it could happen depending on the outcome of this fight. This is a rematch of their 2019 clash which Islam won by a unanimous decision. Since then, Arman has improved drastically. He has only lost one fight since then, winning nine in the process. He has stopped two out of his last three opponents, beating Charles Oliveira in his last fight at UFC 300. Here is what MMA pros had to say about this fight.
Predictions
“Arman gave him a lot of trouble in the first fight, but that was also on short notice and and, you know, Islam as well, had to prepare for a kind of, like, a big stylistic change in opponent…The Tajikistani boys are very smart. They’re very intelligent at breaking down fighters.
“There’s a lot of knowledge there. And like, the handful of things that Aman does, well, I’d say Islam might be able to shut those down. You know, Islam is very defensively sound, on the feet, and I feel like once he kind of, once he has more time to study and break down a Arman’s counter wrestling. Yeah, I think it’s, I think it’ll be a more dominant win,” Dan Hooker
“I think Islam is going to keep it [the belt]. [And] I think he’s going to be the champ until Ilia comes to get it,” Jorge Climent
“I think he [Arman] can get it done. I think he’s an athlete. Look how flexible he is. Look how he got out of that choke with Charles. That was impressive, man. He dug deep for that. And, you know, he’s got a better coach, you know, he’s got, he’s got a great coach. So, you know, I believe in him. He’s an athlete. He’s got big power in his hands. You know, if he believes in those hands, I think he can knock out Makachev,” Colby Covington
Further Predictions
“I think Islam is going to win. And the reason why I think that is because, you know, Islam slows down in his fights. What I’m saying is nothing new. Everybody knows that, but when they fought, Arman actually slowed down more than Islam. So I think that that tells you that’s a big advantage, because in my opinion, if Arman wins, he normally would have to win early against Makhachev. I don’t see him winning a five-round fight against Makhachev personally,” Beniel Dariush
“I think Arman is really good, right? [And] I do think he’s the second best lightweight in the division. When I’m looking at the first fight, right, It was, that’s another great fight to go back and re-watch. But Islam did look sick. Islam didn’t look the same, and I do think that Islam has grown so much since that fight. And when you’re looking at similar opponents, what Islam did to Oliveira, what our Arman did to Oliveira, it’s way different. I do think that Islam is just on another level than all these lightweights,” Belal Muhammad
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