Islam Makhachev is moving up to welterweight to become a two-division champion and he\u2019s already benefiting from his decision in fight camp.<\/p>\n
In the main event of UFC 322 on Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Makhachev fights champion Jack Della Maddalena with the 170-pound title on the line. Makhachev began 2025 at the top of the lightweight heap and after a successful title defense against Renato Moicano in January, he made the decision to move up from 155 pounds to take on Della Maddalena.<\/p>\n
Makhachev spoke to ESPN about the changes he\u2019s had to make to accommodate the jump to welterweight and he\u2019s confident a less strenuous weight cut will benefit him on fight night.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one who cuts, like, 10 kg. [approx. 22 pounds], more than 10 kg., they never recover 100 percent,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201cI still feel I recover for the fight, like, maybe 70, 60 percent, because it\u2019s so hard to recover in 30 hours. Now, I\u2019m very excited to see how I\u2019m going to feel in the cage.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Makhachev was diminished at lightweight, it was difficult to tell based on his performances. After losing in his UFC debut to Adriano Martins back in October 2015, Makhachev has rattled off 15 straight victories, including five straight wins in lightweight title fights. His pro record stands at 27-1.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s in the later rounds against Della Maddalena that Makhachev expects his physical change to pay dividends the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see after the second round if it happens,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201cAfter the second round, after the third round, like champion\u2019s rounds. Let\u2019s see because I already feel it in the camp. How is my my recovery, how is my feeling after the third round? I think it\u2019s going to be something new for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As always, Makhachev will have UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner. Makhachev has long been regarded as the spiritual successor to Nurmagomedov, who went 29-0 in his career primarily utilizing his wrestling to ground, neutralize, and dominate opponents.<\/p>\n
If everything goes according to Nurmagomedov\u2019s gameplan, Makhachev will do the exact same thing to Della Maddalena on fight night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a secret,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201c[Nurmagomedov] told me take him down, try to take him down and make him tired. I think I can finish him on the ground. I can choke him, do an armbar, something. I saw his skills on the ground. He\u2019s good, but I have something more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev is moving up to welterweight to become a two-division champion and he\u2019s already benefiting from his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-259959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259959","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=259959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}