![\"Jack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8d8c74e6c94254b7b691cc580ec2b3fa7dcdb5e4.jpg\")
Camera IconJack Della Maddalena is ready for action. Credit: Ross Swanborough\/The West Australian<\/p>\nJack Della Maddalena is preparing for a mixed martial arts war against arguably the best in the world as he looks to secure his legacy in the biggest fight of his career on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Della Maddalena (18-2) will defend his welterweight title for the first time against former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev (27-1) who is looking to join the illustrious list of athletes to hold belts in two weight divisions.<\/p>\n
The bout is being ear-marked as the biggest fight of the year and will be the main event of a stacked UFC 322 card at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old became champion when he dethroned wrestler Belal Muhammad in May to create Western Australian sporting history, but Makhachev is widely viewed as being on a different level when it comes to work on the mat.<\/p>\n
Della Maddalena said the fight would be more than just a battle of \u201cstriker versus grappler\u201d, with both men to go blow for blow in front of a sold-out crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI respect Islam\u2019s striking, it\u2019s good. His grappling is some of the best in the world, so I am excited to test myself across the board. It\u2019s going to be a mixed martial arts battle \u2014 I expect grappling, striking, the whole lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s five rounds so I expect to be taken down but that\u2019s not the end of the fight, that\u2019s just the beginning. He\u2019s going to be working hard to get the takedowns, and I believe if he gets me down, he\u2019s going to have used a lot of energy so I will stay sharp. If I am on my back I will still be in the fight until the very end.<\/p>\n
Camera IconJack Della Maddalena is ready for action. Credit: Ross Swanborough\/The West Australian<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more than just striker versus grappler. He\u2019s good on the feet, he\u2019s got good weapons in his kicking, punching so I expect a battle on the feet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makhachev said he was not afraid to stand up and go blow for blow with the Australian despite many considering Dell Maddalena the most technical boxer in the UFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a good striker, but I also have good skills. I respect it, I care about his striking, but I am also a good striker,\u201d Makhachev said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like I have to wrestle all of the fight, I can strike. This is MMA, not wrestling so that\u2019s why I am not looking at just wrestling. I will wrestle with him; I will strike with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makhachev, 34, has warned that he would be stronger at welterweight after going up a division following a record four consecutive title defences at lightweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cJack is a good fighter, a hard challenge for me. But I am the hardest challenge for him also so it\u2019s going to be a good fight,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (the weight cut) is less stress, less pressure for me because some of the time it is hard at lightweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will have more power, I feel it is going to be more comfortable. A lot of things have changed when I changed divisions. I\u2019ve become more strong, bigger and feel happy from the training, from all of the camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
It has Della Maddelana preparing for the best version of Makhachev, something he said would make the victory even sweeter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am expecting him to be more powerful. A bigger, stronger guy so I am expecting, and the team are expecting the toughest, biggest, strongest Makhachev that\u2019s been,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re gunning for, that\u2019s the challenge at hand and I am excited for it. I believe I have the skills, the team with me and we\u2019re ready to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Della Maddalena might be alone in the octagon, but he\u2019s had plenty of help in the lead up to the biggest bout of his career to date.<\/p>\n
Renowned Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Craig Jones once again joined the camp, while two-time featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski \u2013 who has fought Makhachev twice \u2013 also spent time with Della Maddalena alongside coach Ben Vickers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you get to spend time with Volk, watching him in the gym is pretty special. Being a young Australian, he is extremely inspiring to me, and he\u2019s been in there with Makhachev so he\u2019s the perfect man to pass on some tips\u201d Della Maddalena said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching Volk work, he\u2019s an extremely hard worked. Seeing him in the room, pushing the pace just shows me the level of where I need to be if I want to be a defending champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been working with Craig a bit. He\u2019s obviously very good at grappling and he\u2019s got his ideas of where he thinks the battles will be won and lost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makhachev played down Volkanovski\u2019s importance in Della Maddalena\u2019s preparation for the crucial bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to understand it doesn\u2019t work like this. You can\u2019t bring some people on camp and it\u2019s going to change your game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to do many years to improve. With wrestling you have to train for five, six or 10 years to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless, Della Maddaelan expects his hand to be raised at the end of the fight no matter how long it lasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a tough fight. I expect puff and blood, the whole lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect my arm getting raised and I believe if I make the right decisions I can take him out of there before the final bell.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Della Maddalena is preparing for a mixed martial arts war against arguably the best in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,10280,785,588,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-281303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mixed-martial-arts","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281303","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=281303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}