Manny Gamburyan believes most fans misunderstood one of the most technical aspects of Islam Makhachev’s fight with Arman Tsarukyan – and it has nothing to do with wrestling.

Appearing on the Jaxxon Podcast alongside Rampage Jackson, the former WEC title challenger shared his assessment of the matchup:

Islam can’t take down Arman in wrestling. I guarantee you guys, Islam is a great wrestler.

Great judo guy. Trust me, he knows judo. When I watch his clips, he can do judo very well.

To Gamburyan, the distinction is crucial, and it was shown in their 2019 matchup:

The technique, the movement that he does. In judo has there’s a gi obviously, right? That that’s a gi right there. That’s a hold right there.
When you hold here, the the technique that he does, it’s all judo. It’s not sambo.

So the the trips that he does, it’s all judo, the movements when he took Arman down in his fight. It was judo reaching under take Arman down in wrestling.

Gamburyan isn’t guessing.

Before MMA, he was a dominant judoka, winning ten national championships and representing the United States at the Junior Judo Worlds:

I always tell everyone, all of my friends, everyone like judo is the toughest sport I’ve ever done in my whole entire life…

Hudo five minutes with a high class opponent, it’s the toughest I’ve ever done in my whole entire life.”

That’s why his advice to Tsarukyan is simple:

If Arman ends up fighting with Islam, he needs to work on his judo.
Arman needs to work on his judo…

I mean, he’s got a lot of bodies in Russia that they that can help him in judo.

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