Arman Tsarukyan is one step away from registering his name in the UFC annals as champion. The #1 ranked lightweight, of course, is set to fight the nigh unstoppable 155lbs juggernaut Islam Makhachev on top of UFC 311 next month. The Dagestani will look to defend his title a record 4th time with his improved striking and already world-class wrestling.

Not to mention he has some of the best and brightest minds in the entire combat sports world like Javier Mendez and Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner. But Tsarukyan is totally unconcerned about what the champ and his team have in store for their fight. Why? Well, because the Armenian has the perfect strategy to make Makhachev and his team’s game plan irrelevant.

“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 forgot about the game plan, so it no makes sense. Same as me when like [in] my last fight against, Oliveira choked me, trying to choke me, and like after that moment my game plan was gone. 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,” Tsarukyan said

Everybody has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth, a great boxer once said. And that precisely is what Tsarukyan is counting on. On the other hand, if that is Tsarukyan’s entire game plan, he is likely to be in trouble. After all, Makhachev is not only the champion but is the kingpin in perhaps the UFC’s toughest, most stacked division and is used to being punched by better strikers than Tsarukyan.

But still, given both men’s skill sets, their scrap is likely to come down to very narrow margins, at least that is what the man who has fought both men recently seems to think.

Charles Oliveira’s prediction for Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan

Arman Tsarukyan and Islam Makhachev are both excellent wrestlers and can more than handle themselves on their feet. While Tsarukyan’s striking may not be as sharp or as technically correct as Makhachev’s, he is more heavy-handed, capable of knocking out the champ with one punch.

On the other hand, if the fight goes to the ground, Makhachev, who is perhaps the best wrestler in the promotion, is likely to have the advantage. In fact, former champ Charles Oliveira thinks that the fight is too close to predict precisely because the two men have “very, very similar styles.”

“I think that they have to watch out for the same things from each other. I think Islam is a little step ahead of Arman and he’s just stronger by a little bit, but when push comes to shove, any of them could win,” ‘Do Bronx’ told the ‘New York Post’ a few months ago. This is why Makhachev-Tsarukyan is such a mouth-watering clash for fans and analysts alike. What do you think about Arman Tsarukyan’s ‘game plan’ for the Islam Makhachev fight?