Jack Della Maddalena is a “good fighter,” according to Tyron Woodley.
But outlasting Belal Muhammad to win the 170-pound title does not put him in the same class as “The Chosen One,” who had to face and defeat a murderer’s row of welterweights during his championship run. Among his opponents were “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler, Carlos “The Natural Born Killer” Condit, and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.
All three would have smoked the 28 year-old Aussie.
“He wouldn’t even have been in my crosshairs,” Woodley
told Action Network. “I wouldn’t have been looking at him in the scope. He wouldn’t have gone through Carlos (Condit). He definitely wouldn’t have gotten through Robbie (Lawler). ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson) does better against pure strikers than all of us. I think [Della Maddalena] is a good fighter. I never take away from people, it’s hard to win a championship just because there’s so much pressure. But I can just think of 10 people in my division at that time that was the champion that would have beat him.”
Della Maddalena is expected to make his first title defense against former lightweight champ, Islam Makhachev.
“I think Islam wins,” Woodley continued. “But once again, if Islam came up (in weight), and we were sitting there (in my era), he’s not winning. I think he would give a better match just because of his wrestling ability, he would have given ‘Wonderboy’ problems, he would have given Robbie problems, just because of his wrestling. But if you put Islam against Johny Hendricks, he gets knocked out. You put him against me, I think he gets beat and potentially knocked out. Islam might do okay against [Georges St-Pierre], because of the wrestling, but just stylistically, the heavy-handed wrestlers that were in that era, he would have a problem with.”
Woodley, now 43, parted ways with UFC after losing four straight fights and has not seen the inside of a cage since falling to Vicente Luque at UFC 260 back in early 2021. “The Chosen One” tried to cross over to boxing; however, a devastating loss to Jake Paul convinced him to find his way back to MMA.
Something tells me Della Maddalena won’t be looking over his shoulder.
