Former UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev captured the welterweight title by dominating Jack Della Maddalena atop the UFC 322 pay-per-view (PPV) event last Sat. night (Nov. 15, 2025) at Madison Square
Garden in New York City. The victory gave the 34 year-old Makhachev his second world title in as many weight classes and tied him with former middleweight champion Anderson Silva for the longest winning streak in UFC history at 16.
Current 155-pound titleholder Ilia Topuria is not impressed.
“Jack needs an entire camp dedicated just to wrestling,” Topuria wrote on X. “What a disappointment of a champion. You should go to Georgia to learn something. Islam, you need something you can’t train: emotion. You’re the most boring thing in this game. Every day I’m more certain I put you to sleep.”
Topuria surrendered his featherweight strap to grab gold in a higher weight class.
With both Topuria and Makhachev moving up in weight — and finding success — the chances of them settling their beef becomes less likely to happen. “El Matador” must first defend his lightweight title before he can have this conversation and Makhachev (28-1) is now faced with a long list of worthy contenders, which includes the No. 3-ranked Shavkat Rakhmonov. “Nomad” (19-0) is excepted to return from knee injury at some point in early 2026.
“Congratulations to Islam, excellent performance,” Rakhmonov wrote on X. “But the real challenge at 170 is still me.”
That remains to be seen.
UFC 322 also produced big wins for Carlos Prates and Michael Morales. “The Nightmare” starched former welterweight champion Leon Edwards and Morales obliterated the No. 2-ranked Sean Brady on the UFC 322 main card. In addition, former champions Kamaru Usman and Belal Muhammad are still in the mix, along with the No. 6-ranked Ian Garry. UFC matchmakers have some tough decisions ahead of them but from a fan’s perspective, the welterweight division has never been this much fun.
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