{"id":284007,"date":"2025-11-14T13:20:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T13:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/284007\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T13:20:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T13:20:10","slug":"jack-della-maddalena-backs-himself-to-beat-ufc-legend-islam-makhachev-mixed-martial-arts-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/284007\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Della Maddalena backs himself to beat UFC \u2018legend\u2019 Islam Makhachev | Mixed Martial Arts News"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC boss breaks up tense face-off between the two fighters before their welterweight title bout at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

UFC boss Dana White had to separate a tense staredown between welterweight title holder Jack Della Maddalena and Islam Makhachev before their fight this weekend<\/a>, as the defending champ pledged to beat the mixed martial arts \u201clegend\u201d to bring the belt home to Australia.<\/p>\n

The fighters came nose-to-nose and refused to break eye contact during a face-off after their news conference on Thursday at Madison Square Garden, New York, where they will headline UFC 322 on Saturday night, eventually leading White to prise them apart.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Della Maddalena (18-2) will mount his first title defence after beating Belal Muhammad<\/a> by unanimous decision to become champion in May. The 29-year-old Australian is undefeated in the UFC and is now on an 18-fight win streak overall.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Makhachev (27-1), who is regarded as a pound-for-pound great and is on a 15-win streak, vacated his lightweight belt to move up a weight class.<\/p>\n

Della Maddalena was taciturn but appeared unfazed as he received a chorus of boos from the crowd at Thursday night\u2019s news conference, with his Dagestani opponent the clear fan-favourite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I got in this sport for \u2013 big challenges, big moments. I\u2019m excited for the challenge and I\u2019m looking forward to it,\u201d Della Maddalena said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to bring this belt back home to Australia, no doubt,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, Islam\u2019s a legend. A big win over him would be a big name on the resume and it would definitely put me up on the pound-for-pound list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makhachev said it was his \u201cdream\u201d to become a two-weight champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very close to my dream. All my professional career when I was lightweight champion, it\u2019s my dream to become a double champion. Two more days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Makhachev added that he would go 4-0 against Australian fighters \u2013 although he may have been lumping the New Zealander Dan Hooker in that list, as his only previous Aussie opponent was Alexander Volkanovski, who Makhachev beat twice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia, it\u2019s a good place. I was there, I like it and now it\u2019s 3-0, I will make it four,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Della Maddalena hit back by saying several Australian fighters were thriving in the UFC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very proud to be Australian, very proud to raise the Australian flag,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is very competitive, it has a fighting culture and that\u2019s why we\u2019re doing so well. We have two champions and after this weekend we will still have two champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Della Maddalena and Makhachev are both well-rounded fighters, the Australian is renowned for his boxing while the Dagestani is famed for his ferocious ground game.<\/p>\n

Makhachev smiled and said he \u201cdidn\u2019t know\u201d when asked if Della Maddalena was the best boxer in the UFC.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack is one of the best, but I am also a good striker, so let\u2019s see who is better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Della Maddalena, meanwhile, told reporters he would \u201cabsolutely\u201d be able to defend Makhachev\u2019s takedown attempts for the entire fight, as he did so effectively in his victory over Muhammad.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I can do it for the] full 25 minutes,\u201d he said, with a wry smile of his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC boss breaks up tense face-off between the two fighters before their welterweight title bout at Madison Square…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,64,63,2057,10280,44,2016,588,85,1055,6075],"class_list":{"0":"post-284007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-mixed-martial-arts","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-us-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284007","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=284007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}