- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 788,624
- Reaction score
- 53
Jack Della Maddalena is ready to grapple early against Islam Makhachev.
Welterweight champion Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) makes his first title defense against Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) in the UFC 322 headliner on Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Della Maddalena dethroned Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 in a fight in which Muhammad opted to primarily strike before resorting to his wrestling. He sees Makhachev implementing a more cautious game plan.
"They're different fighters, different challenges," Della Maddalena said in a media scrum (h/t Submission Radio). "Obviously, there's some similarities within the grappling style, but I definitely look at Islam as a completely different challenge – more of a finishing ability, more powerful on the feet, so different challenge, and I'm excited for it.
"It's going to start on the feet, and we'll go from there. I think he's going to try and mix it up. I think he'll probably try getting on wrestling early, I'd imagine. Looking back at the Belal fight, he probably sees that Belal's mistake was maybe not getting on the wrestling early. Yeah, expecting the first round to be getting into some grappling exchanges."
A proven knockout artist, Della Maddalena is eyeing a big finish of Makhachev in the world's most famous arena.
"I'm going to go for it," Della Maddalena said. "Obviously, that would be the best-case scenario: Get the finish. I can see it happening. I can see blowing the roof off MSG, taking out the pound-for-pound No. 1 with no doubts. A finish would be the dream."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 322: Jack Della Maddalena expects Islam Makhachev to wrestle early
Continue reading...
Welterweight champion Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) makes his first title defense against Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) in the UFC 322 headliner on Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Della Maddalena dethroned Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 in a fight in which Muhammad opted to primarily strike before resorting to his wrestling. He sees Makhachev implementing a more cautious game plan.
"They're different fighters, different challenges," Della Maddalena said in a media scrum (h/t Submission Radio). "Obviously, there's some similarities within the grappling style, but I definitely look at Islam as a completely different challenge – more of a finishing ability, more powerful on the feet, so different challenge, and I'm excited for it.
"It's going to start on the feet, and we'll go from there. I think he's going to try and mix it up. I think he'll probably try getting on wrestling early, I'd imagine. Looking back at the Belal fight, he probably sees that Belal's mistake was maybe not getting on the wrestling early. Yeah, expecting the first round to be getting into some grappling exchanges."
A proven knockout artist, Della Maddalena is eyeing a big finish of Makhachev in the world's most famous arena.
"I'm going to go for it," Della Maddalena said. "Obviously, that would be the best-case scenario: Get the finish. I can see it happening. I can see blowing the roof off MSG, taking out the pound-for-pound No. 1 with no doubts. A finish would be the dream."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: UFC 322: Jack Della Maddalena expects Islam Makhachev to wrestle early
Continue reading...
