{"id":42033,"date":"2025-08-04T04:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42033\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T04:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:49:08","slug":"khabib-nurmagomedov-hints-at-jack-della-maddalena-vs-islam-makhachev-superfight-for-madison-square-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/42033\/","title":{"rendered":"Khabib Nurmagomedov hints at Jack Della Maddalena vs Islam Makhachev superfight for Madison Square Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jack Della Maddalena appears to have his first title defence already in the works, with the Australian on a collision course with former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old captured welterweight gold at UFC 315, stunning fans with his victory over Belal Muhammad. Now, a monumental title fight awaits at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0UFC Perth main event confirmed as Kiwi gets title audition<\/p>\n<p>Makhachev is expected to move up a division for this bout after vacating his lightweight belt earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>His coach and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov hinted at the matchup during a recent fan question-and-answer appearance in New York.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is his deal with the UFC,&#8221; Nurmagomedov said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t deal with the UFC. This is his problem, but we have [a] deal with them where he&#8217;s gonna fight at Madison Square Garden and they said yes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING NEWS: Khabib Nurmagomedov confirms Islam Makhachev will MAIN EVENT against Jack Della Maddalena at <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ufc322?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#ufc322<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Khabib?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#Khabib<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/IslamMakhachev?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">#IslamMakhachev<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3oJ23a5BVE\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/3oJ23a5BVE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Cornell Combat Sports Show (@theMMMApodcast) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theMMMApodcast\/status\/1951826659289825709?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">August 3, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The UFC is yet to officially confirm the blockbuster showdown, but looking at their schedule in years past, a return to the Garden seems likely to go down in November.<\/p>\n<p>For Della Maddalena, the challenge is enormous. Makhachev enters the bout with the momentum of four consecutive title defences &#8211; two of those over\u00a0Della Maddalena&#8217;s countryman Alex Volkanovski.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of the Russian stepping up in weight class adds intrigue, presenting questions over whether or not he can implement his dominant wrestling game against a bigger opponent.<\/p>\n<p>If finalised, the event would put both men in the frame for fighter of the year discussions, a welcome achievement to their growing legacies.<\/p>\n<p>                        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Della Maddalena appears to have his first title defence already in the works, with the Australian on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-42033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42033","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=42033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}