Jack Della Maddalena plans to remove the judges from the equation when he takes on Islam Makhachev at UFC 322.
The Australian champion defends his welterweight title for the first time on Nov. 15 at Madison
Square Garden in New York, where he takes on Makhachev, the No. 1 Pound-for-Pound fighter in the world. Makhachev is 27-1 with 15 straight victories dating back to 2015 and he only lost the lightweight title when he chose to vacate it following four successful defenses.
When the UFC 322 main event is over, Della Maddalena he not only ends Makhachev’s win streak, but does so in spectacular fashion.
“I’m going to go for it,” Della Maddalena said, speaking to media in Perth, Australia (h/t Submission Radio). “Obviously, that would be the best-case scenario, get the finish. I can see it happening and I can see it blowing the roof off MSG. Taking out pound-for-pound No. 1 with no doubts, a finish would be the dream.”
Della Maddalena has gone to the cards in three of his past four fights, including his UFC 315 title-winning triumph over Belal Muhammad. Few question his finishing ability though as he won this first four UFC fights inside of a round and scored a clutch third-round knockout of perennial contender Gilbert Burns to earn his championship opportunity.
Muhammad’s training partnership with Makhachev’s team is well-documented, so Della Maddalena is keeping that in mind as he prepares for Makhachev.
“Definitely they’re different fighters, different challenges,” Della Maddalena said. “Obviously, there’s some similarities within the grappling style, but I definitely look at Islam as a completely different challenge. More finishing ability, more powerful on the feet, a different challenge that I’m excited for.”
While Makhachev is famous for his grappling, he’s proven more than capable of doing damage on the feet. Most notably, he finished Alexander Volkanovski in their second fight, connecting with a head kick that stunned Volkanovski en route to a knockout win.
Della Maddalena welcomes every aspect of Makhachev’s game, especially if the former lightweight king learned anything from Muhammad’s loss.
“It’s hard to expect anything,” Della Maddalena said. “I definitely feel like he would test the feet. I think it’s going to start on the feet and we’ll go from there. But yeah, I think he’s going to try and mix it up, I think he’s probably going to try and get on the wrestling early, I’d imagine, looking back on the Belal fight. He probably sees that Belal’s mistake was maybe not getting on the wrestling early. I expect in the first round we’ll be getting into at least some grappling exchanges.”
