{"id":117889,"date":"2025-09-04T09:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/117889\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T09:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T09:34:10","slug":"islam-makhachevs-coach-believes-jack-della-maddalena-is-underestimating-his-destructive-striking-ahead-of-ufc-322","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/117889\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev\u2019s coach believes Jack Della Maddalena is underestimating his destructive striking ahead of UFC 322"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Islam Makhachev has a lot to prove when he moves up in weight to face Jack Della Maddalena, and his coach believes his destructive striking is being overlooked.<\/p>\n

The UFC<\/a> 322 pound-for-pound clash between Makhachev<\/a> and Della Maddalena is scheduled to be a very interesting cross-divisional clash, which could reaffirm the Russian as the best in the world.<\/p>\n

It will be a 15 lb weight difference to cover for the former lightweight champion, but his camp believes he looks bigger<\/a> already, two months before the move up in weight.<\/p>\n

\"IslamPhoto by GIUSEPPE CACACE\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, it is not an easy feat to pull off, especially as Maddalena is a tough title fight<\/a> test, but the 33-year-old\u2019s experience as lightweight champion could see him score a surprise win.<\/p>\n

Islam Makhachev\u2019s coach details destructive sparring which could be a problem for Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322<\/p>\n

As the Australian champion is a naturally bigger fighter than his opponent, experts have picked this out as a factor in the standup department, considering Islam was once knocked out early in his UFC career.<\/p>\n

His striking coach, Javier Mendez, though, does not think his fighter will be outmatched in the striking department, despite his size disadvantage.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Submission Radio, the trainer explained what he has seen in sparring and why the titleholder may want to respect the Dagestani\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Mendez said: \u201cI hope that he goes in believing that because when he gets in there with Islam, you\u2019re gonna find out a whole different story because I\u2019m sorry, they\u2019re completely different.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy no means is Islam an easy fight for anybody, understand that. Any MMA fighter that\u2019s a striker, they\u2019re not going to have an easy time with him. I\u2019ve been with this kid going on 11 years of watching him just destroy everybody on the standup.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys that are much better standup than him and he still destroys them. So no, don\u2019t go by what you see. When you get in there with that man, it\u2019s a whole different ballgame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of his 17 fights, Islam has only knocked out three of his opponents, with most of his finishes usually coming from submissions.<\/p>\n

His last knockout victory came two years ago when he defended his lightweight crown successfully against Alexander Volkanovski.<\/p>\n

Islam Makhachev\u2019s coach reveals one first-time change he has made for the Jack Della Maddalena fight at UFC 322 <\/p>\n

Preparations for this contest have been ongoing since he made a fourth consecutive defense of his title, submitting Renato Moicano in January.<\/p>\n

But changes have been made for this camp, especially from coach Mendez, who is doing something he has never done for previous camps.<\/p>\n

In the interview, he continued: \u201cI\u2019ve never watched tape for an Islam fight. Never. This is the first time because I respect this guy that much and he\u2019s a puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not that easy. I\u2019m telling you, he\u2019s not that easy. We\u2019ll get him, but he\u2019s not that easy, and I have to be confident that we\u2019ll get him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maddalena has not been defeated in the organisation so far; his last three wins have been against the former champion Belal Muhammad and two established welterweight contenders, with one coming by knockout.<\/p>\n

A victory over Makhachev could be enough to raise his ranking in the P4P list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev has a lot to prove when he moves up in weight to face Jack Della Maddalena,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,27140,27141,785,85,787],"class_list":["post-117889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-islam-makhachev","tag-jack-della-maddalena","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}