Khabib Nurmagomedov has all the respect in the world for Jack Della Maddalena.
“JDM” defends his welterweight championship this Saturday in the main event of UFC 322 in New York, taking on Nurmagomedov’s
close friend and teammate Islam Makhachev. After taking the title from Belal Muhammad this past May, Della Maddalena’s first defense is against the indomitable former lightweight champion who has won 15 straight fights.
Much of the narrative surrounding the contest has revolved around where a Makhachev win would place him among the all-time greats, but Nurmagomedov warns fans not to look past Della Maddalena.
“Islam, on top of his game the last five years, he was champion at lightweight, and he was long time a contender,” Nurmagomedov told Josh Thomson on YouTube. “People know him the last five years, on the top, Islam. But JDM, he just won his biggest fight in his life against Belal, and people don’t know him.
“But the way how he showed his skills, I think he’s a very, very tough opponent for us. That’s why we train so hard. … It was 11 weeks of very hard training, Islam is ready to go, and we expect a very tough fight against JDM and we give him credit and we know he’s a tough guy.”
Makhachev has had to bulk up from 155 to 170 pounds to prepare for the opportunity to join an illustrious list of two-division champions that includes Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes, B.J. Penn, Daniel Cormier, and Alex Pereira, among other legends.
According to Nurmagomedov, the build has been gradual, and he doesn’t expect Makhachev to have any issues with the weight class change.
“Honestly, he was lifting,” Nurmagomedov said. “He was preparing for this fight to move to welterweight after he finished his fight in January. The last six, seven months, he was putting on weight a little bit, but he was never more than 200 [pounds], no, never.”
As far as where Makhachev will land in the GOAT debate—a conversation the undefeated Nurmagomedov is usually a part of—if successful Saturday, Nurmagomedov isn’t too concerned about that storyline. What’s more important is to continue passing on the legacy set forth by Nurmagomedov’s father and coach Abdulmanap, who passed away in 2020, prompting Nurmagomedov’s exit from competition.
“It’s like this, when I was young, it was people around me with who I was improving my game,” Nurmagomedov said. “And Islam was with me. He’s younger than me and he was improving with me. I was world champion in amateur and I had, maybe, seven, 10 fights? Islam was just beginning. And when you look at the history and the way I was improving with other guys after Islam was improving with me, now Usman [Nurmagomedov] improving with Islam. It’s like we’re giving legacy to legacy, legacy to legacy, guys coming up, there’s other young guys, they are not very famous but they are coming with Usman now. It’s like stairs. This was father’s plan. It was his plan, because of his wisdom.”
