Israel Adesanya, Robert Whittaker Offer Insight and Picks for UFC 311’s Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan 2

Former UFC middleweight champions and old rivals, Israel Adesanya and Robbert Whitakkaer teamed up for a discussion about UFC’s first PPV of the year. This pairing, dubbed by fans as the MMA equivalent of Rocky and Apollo Creed, shared their insights on UFC 311’s anticipated main event: Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan 2.

Both middleweight stars agree that Makhachev holds the edge going into the fight. Adesanya and Whittaker praised the lightweight champ’s striking, cardio, and wrestling, and both confidently predicted that he would retain his belt.

Adesanya even went into finer details, boldly claiming,

“Round five, late submission.”

He, however, didn’t completely rule out an upset. The ‘Last Stylebender’ highlighted Tsarukyan’s grit and determination, describing the Armenian contender as someone who has that “dog” in him to make this a truly competitive fight. “Don’t count him out”, Adesanya warned.

With just days to go for the fight, these predictions could play a part in the psyche of the fighters going into the fight.

Tsarukyan knows he is the underdog going into the fight and he will look to use that to his advantage. He has already spoken about using a secret trick to defeat Islam in this rematch. Arman has also claimed that Islam has weaknesses in conditioning he intends to exploit.

However, the champ is more than ready for this challenge and he has come up with a prediction for the fight himself.

Islam asks not to take Arman seriously

Makhachev has repeatedly been asked about Arman’s predictions, which he has almost laughed off every single time. He loves to remind everyone about how Arman had promised to finish Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 but had only managed to get a split-decision win. He did as much when he was asked about it at the UFC 311 presser.

“Don’t believe what Arman says.”

Islam Makhachev isn’t buying Arman Tsarukyan’s “secret technique” for #UFC311 and points out his past inaccuracies. pic.twitter.com/C7uXkORkLW

— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) January 15, 2025

Earlier yesterday, he joined the Nelk Boys and claimed that while the first fight was a good match for both of them since they went the distance and got the bonus, it won’t happen again.

“I want to finish him because I am always good in the rematch, and I want to finish him… Inside three rounds, because, any chance, my opponent give me to finish, I always looking for the finish.”

Hopefully, all this trash talk actualizes into a proper fight. This is the first time in a long time that a title fight has well-rounded contenders of this caliber competing. So hopefully, it will be just as entertaining as their media appearances have been.