Islam Makhachev is gearing up for his highly anticipated rematch with Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 311, a showdown six years in the making. While Makhachev’s grappling is often seen as his bread and butter, fellow lightweight fighter Joe Solecki believes taking a different approach might not be such a bad idea.
A strike-first approach is a bold suggestion, one that Islam already tried and probably overdid against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302, but a strategic and complimentary use might be the aberration he needs if he wants to avoid being on his back against Tsarukyan.
Solecki claims that Arman would be able to successfully takedown the champion, who has never really been tested off his back.
“I think he is a great grappler. I am sure he has decent game there but it is not where he chooses to be. I don’t think it is the worst idea for Islam to stay on the feet until he tires him out. I think just off the cuff that is what I would say.”
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Islam himself has often claimed that wrestling is not his base game. It is combat sambo. While it still primarily focuses on a ground game, the champion has come a long way from the mats of Dagestan. His striking, though still patchy, has improved leaps and bounds, courtesy of the hours spent at the American Kickboxing Academy with Javier Mendez.
Can Arman match Islam’s striking?
Ahead of his fourth title defense, Mendez has claimed that the champion has still got ways to go. The AKA coach believes at this stage in Makhachev’s career, all he needs to do is introduce tweaks to his game.
“It’s like anything, when you’re at the highest level, you can still improve but you can not improve tremendously, just a little bit, but that little bit can make the biggest difference.”
So, it would not be much of a surprise to see Makhachev mix his usual feints up with some pivots to create awkward spaces courtesy of his southpaw stance and slip in some fatal jabs.
Besides boxing, Makhachev’s kicking has also seen a marked improvement in recent years. During his rematch with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294, the champion kept the challenger at bay with a shrewd use of low kicks and finished him off with a picture-perfect head kick.
So the real question is, can Tsarukyan handle Islam’s striking? The first time both fighters went to battle, Tsarukyan not only stuffed takedowns, he managed to get a few of his own. It has been a long journey since then but he has never been at the mercy of a superior striker, especially one possessed with the versatility of an almost perfect ground game.
