Islam Makhachev is flying high after a dominant performance at UFC 322 that saw him blank Jack Della Maddalena on the scorecard to secure the UFC welterweight title. Makhachev is now a two division champion
and expects to retake his position as No. 1 on the pound-for-pound ranking over Ilia Topuria.
And if “El Matador” has a problem with that, he can come up and challenge Makhachev for the belt.
“This is the most competitive division right now, welterweight, 100%,” Makhachev said at the UFC 322 post-fight press conference. “A lot of young guys who fought today. Next week there’s gonna be [Garry and Muhammad] and there’s also Kamaru [Usman] and [Ilia] Topuria. All killers who want to take my belts.”
“No. I don’t give you, no. I’m working so hard to be double champion, and I feel [great] today. I don’t have to cut much weight, and I’m gonna defend my belt many, many times more.”
While Makhachev initially called for a spot on the UFC’s big June White House card, he suggested his next title defense could come sooner than that due to the lack of damage he took against JDM.
“No injury. Nothing. I don’t feel any pains. I am ready. Who is gonna be next?” he asked. “Let’s do this, and I will make it easy. Today, I show you. Jack’s one of the best in this game. One of the hardest opponents. That’s why I prepare so hard: to make this easy. This is our plan. I tried to do some chokes, try to make kimura, but he defends very well. But I make this easy because I’m training so hard.”
Della Maddalena seemed to have no answer whatsoever for getting back to his feet once Makhachev took him down. Islam said that had more to do with his ability to nullify his opponent than anything else.
“When I take him down first time, I feel it’s gonna be long night [for him] and I can do whatever I want on the ground,” Makhachev said. “I expect for him to try to get up, but we’re working. We watch his old fights. He have a couple sweeps, a couple things in the ground, but I block him there. And that’s why I make this easy.”
Leading up to the fight, much was made of Della Maddalena’s teammate Craig Jones, one of the best BJJ aces in the world. He’d helped JDM keep the fight against Belal Muhammad standing, but there was no such success in New York City on Saturday night.
“I told him, ‘Your jiu jitsu not working. You have to come to Dagestan for two, three years,'” Makhachev said of Jones. “He starts laughing. He told Khadib, ‘I will come Dagestan.'”
