Robert Whittaker Feels Islam Makhachev’s Skills Make Him Hard to Beat Against Arman Tsarukyan

With Arman Tsarukyan challenging Islam Makhachev for his first shot at the lightweight title at UFC 311, even fellow fighters have put on their betting hats. In the same spirit, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has put his weight behind the reigning lightweight king since he believes Makhachev clearly edges out Arman on skills. 

With Makhachev’s consistent performances on his feet and the ground, Whittaker believes the champ’s all-around game creates a huge gap that Tsarukyan will struggle to close. 

“You know, I understand how good Arman Tsarukyan is. But I just feel like if we look at Islam’s last fight with Dustin and look at Arman’s last fight with Charles, I just feel like there is a gap. You look at the names, the level of fights, look at the stage Islam’s fights were set on. I find it very hard to see him getting defeated.”

Whittaker went on to admit that thus far, Tsarukyan probably gave Islam one of the toughest fights of his UFC career, however, that was a while back and since then Makhachev has become an entirely different fighter.

Whittaker was particularly complimentary of Makhachev’s striking which he feels has improved significantly alongside his wrestling and grappling which was at a very high level to begin with. Whittaker’s Poirier example was an illustration of the same skills. Poirier, one of UFC’s best strikers did put the screws on Islam but was not only submitted but also thoroughly outboxed by the champion.

Arman, on the other hand, struggled to defeat Oliveira. Not just that, there were quite a few moments in the fight where Oliveira looked like he was going to go for the kill and finish him off. This is not to say that the win was a moment of luck for Tsarukyan but it was too close for liking.

But the hype around Tsarukyan vs Makhachev truly comes from the memories of the challenger’s debut. However, now Islam wants to put all those little ‘what if’ stories to rest and move on to greener pastures.

Makhachev’s welterweight dreams

For the longest time, Islam has claimed that his eventual goal is to go to another division and hold two titles at the same time. He could very well be pursuing those dreams if this fight goes the way he wants. Unlike many others in the UFC, who have and want to move on to another weight class the moment they win the title, Islam has actually stayed and helped his division move along.

He had already fought everyone when he was waiting in the wings. Since taking the title for Oliveira at UFC 280, he has been one of the most active champions in the promotion.

So the Arman question that has lingered since 2019 does seem to annoy him a bit. This is why he wants to put Arman in the backseat and move on to whoever wins the potential title fight between Belal Muhammad and Shavkat Rakhmonov at 170 lbs.