Jack Della Maddalena had never lost in the UFC before crossing paths with Islam Makhachev and the result wasn’t easy to shake off.
On Saturday, Della Maddalena looks to bounce back from his disappointing performance against Makhachev when he takes on Carlos Prates in the main event of UFC Perth. It’s the first fight for “JDM” since losing the welterweight title at UFC 322 this past November, and he’s focused on the task at hand even though he admits the Makhachev defeat lingered.
“It’s part of the
game,” Della Maddalena said at UFC Perth media day on Wednesday. “Wins and losses, that’s what this sport’s about. Yeah, it haunted me for a few nights for sure, but I was always expected to fight some of the big challenges, obviously. Carlos was someone I definitely thought I was going to fight at some point. It would be nice to be fighting him as the champion but that’s just not the way it turned out.”
Makhachev won a lopsided decision over Della Maddalena, grounding him with wrestling for five rounds and denying Della Maddalena any opportunity to show off the dynamic striking that made him champion. It was the first loss for the Australian star after beginning his UFC career 8-0.
Fortunately for Della Maddalena, New York City offered plenty of ways to cope with the loss.
“I just ate a lot of pizza in New York,” Della Maddalena said. “Sort of enjoyed New York City. Yeah, just sort of ate my way through the city and then got home and yeah, it was a bit sad when I got home, but that’s the sport. That’s what makes winning so good is the potential of losing.”
In the five months since the Makhachev fight, Della Maddelana and his team have had plenty of time to review what went wrong and they’re confident going five round with the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world will only make him better.
“Obviously, some technical things didn’t go my way in the fight, so we went back, looked at those, looked at the reasons why we couldn’t get those things off and try and rebuild off those, but yeah, different stylistic matchup [against Prates] for sure,” Della Maddalena said, later adding, “In the fight itself, I guess more footwork. Probably just be more calm. I think I was just too emotional going into it, but they’re the things you sort of take away, come back better.”
A win over Prates would keep Della Maddalena in the thick of the welterweight title race, one that has stayed hot in recent months. Aside from Della Maddalena and Prates, Ian Machado Garry appears to be the front-runner to challenge Islam Makhachev next, with the undefeated Michael Morales and former champion Kamaru Usman also waiting in the wings.
Given that cluster of names, Della Maddalena doesn’t expect to challenge for the belt next no matter what happens Saturday night.
“Probably not,” Della Maddalena said. “I think there’s a lot of contenders, a lot of fights that need to be had, so we’ll see what happens. But it would definitely keep me in the top picture and I got the title shot originally from just being active and just ready to sort of jump in at a moment’s notice, so I guess it would just keep me in that position if anything does fall through I’ll be able to jump in. But yeah, I would expect probably two more fights and then have another shot.”
