Aljamain Sterling shares prediction for UFC 311 main event between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan: "I think his striking overall is cleaner"

Arman Tsarukyan will hear the phrase 'and new' uttered inside the cage this weekend according to a former UFC titleholder. Tsarukyan will enter the octagon for a rematch with reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev this weekend in the headline attraction for UFC 311.

Giving his breakdown of the first pay-per-view main event of the UFC's calendar year, former bantamweight kingpin in the promotion Aljamain Sterling has offered his thoughts on the consequential contest. Describing it as a hot take in the caption for his Instagram post delving into the machinations of this sequel clash with Makhachev and Tsarukyan, Sterling said:

"So I think Islam is the guy right now but I also think Arman is just as good as Islam and I think the first fight showed that. The guy can wrestle his a** off, he has a pretty solid gas tank, and I think his striking overall is cleaner than Islam. Islam's got more of an awkward striking. It's effective, it does good damage."

"He has dropped guys before, put them out. But I will say, from a technical standpoint and like in terms of the principle look and feel for striking, I think Islam is just a little below Arman. All respect to Islam but I do feel there's going to be a passing of the torch on Jan. 18 for the main event."

Check out Sterling's breakdown of Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan II below:

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Former UFC champ does not see Arman Tsarukyan beating Islam Makhachev

Although Arman Tsarukyan is favored by Aljamain Sterling, not all former UFC champions are aligned with that prediction. During a recent episode of the MMArcade Podcast, former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker weighed in on the upcoming Makhachev and Tsarukyan lightweight title fight.

While Whittaker praised the skills of the 28-year-old title challenger, the former 185-pound titleholder felt like he saw a skill gap between Makhachev and Tsarukyan. This perception was relative to how Whittaker thought they looked in their last fights with Makhachev besting Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 and Tsarukyan defeating Charles Oliveira at UFC 300.

Whittaker addressed the rhetoric about how well Tsarukyan did in the first fight, despite everything he dealt with, considering that was a UFC debut on short notice he was quite competitive.

Whittaker feels like the Georgia-born, native of Russia doesn't quite have the names and the level of fights on his resume as Makhachev has had since the first meeting between the two.