Islam Makhachev is on his way to becoming perhaps the greatest lightweight this sport has ever seen. He certainly will start to be in the conversation if he beats Arman Tsarukyan in their UFC 311 clash next month for a record-breaking four lightweight title defenses. After all, he is facing, for the first time since becoming champion, another elite-level wrestler, who also holds one-punch knockout power in his fists.

But being a champion, it’s more than just winning fights for the Dagestani. It’s about being able to beat anyone who weighs 155 pounds or less at any time. But on that front, too, Makhachev has proven himself. After all, he took a short-notice rematch against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294 who was probably the best fighter in the world after Charles Oliveira pulled out.

Surprisingly, even his UFC 302 Dustin Poirier fight was somewhat short notice, at least that is what Makhachev claimed in a recent interview with ‘Yuka MMA’ on YouTube. “I had two months before my fight with Poirier. I was not in shape, I was traveling. When I found out about the fight I was in Saudi Arabia, it was the month of Ramadan. In general, I had other plans. I had to adapt,” Makhachev said.

This sounds a bit strange since Makhachev was the one who had been insisting that he wanted to fight in June. In fact, ‘The Diamond’ wasn’t even really in the title picture at the time. The former 155lbs interim champ was roped in by the UFC mostly because Makhachev wanted to fight in June. But apparently, the Dagestani ace was not expecting this.

It seems he may have thought that since all the title contenders like Arman Tsarukyan, Justin Gaethje, or even Charles Oliveira were unavailable, he would not get to fight in June. But Dana White delivered, which apparently blind-sided the Dagestani champ. This time around, however, Makhachev is fully prepared. But so is Tsarukyan!

How does Arman Tsarukyan plan to beat Islam Makhachev?

Arman Tsarukyan has one mission going into the Islam Makhachev fight- make the champ forget his game plan. How? By hurting the kingpin as soon as he can.

“I think when like [talking about] game plan, when you got like hard punch, you forgot about game plan. So if I hurt him very well, he’s going to forget about the game plan… Like [in] my last fight against, Oliveira choked me, trying to choke me, and like after that moment my game plan was gone..” Tsarukyan explained.

The Armenian contender further added, “So I didn’t even remember what was my game plan. So that’s why I got to hurt him very hard in the first round and then doesn’t matter what game plan they have.” After all, Makhachev has the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Javier Mendez in his corner, who are some of the best minds in the sport.

‘Team Khabib’ undoubtedly must have worked out an excellent game plan to deal with the Armenian, which Makhachev is more than capable of carrying out. Unless that is, Tsarukyan finds a way to scuttle it and make the champ fight on pure instinct. What do you think about Makhachev’s revelations about the Poirier fight?