Jack Della Maddalena promises to come back better after falling to Islam Makhachev in the UFC 322 main event.
That’s the message from the now former UFC welterweight champion in his first statement after
suffering a lopsided decision loss this past weekend in New York City. The fight played out with Della Maddalena spending the majority of the time on his back with Makhachev scoring four takedowns and racking up over 19 minutes of control time as the Russian mauler became the 11th fighter in UFC history to win titles in two different divisions.
“Thanks to those always supporting,” Della Maddalena wrote on Instagram. “Islam is one of the greats and deserved to win. I will learn and move forward.”
After showing great counterwrestling in his title fight win over Belal Muhammad back in May, Della Maddalena struggled to stop Makhachev’s takedowns during their five round battle.
While he did a remarkable job of staying out of submissions with Makhachev constantly threatening a potential finish on the ground, Della Maddalena just couldn’t muster much offense over his own. Over 25 minutes, Della Maddalena only scored 18 significant strikes — a far cry from the 178 he delivered to beat Muhammad and become champion.
While falling to Makhachev and losing the title is an obvious setback, Della Maddalena has been here before.
The Australian slugger actually suffered back-to-back losses in the first two fights of his professional career but never gave up hope that he could bounce back. He then rattled off 18 straight wins including eight straight victories to start his UFC career.
“I lost my first fight and then went into another fight and had lost two fights,” Della Maddalena told MMA Fighting back in 2022. “My coach wasn’t there the second time around but we spoke on the phone, we thought I was better than being an 0-2 fighter and we made that pact to get to 10-2.
“It seemed like a massive goal at that stage to get 10 wins in a row, but we just slowly worked at it and made it happen.”
Now Della Maddalena looks to build a new win streak following his setback against Makhachev at UFC 322.
