The UFC is full of champions looking to move up as quickly as possible to snatch a second belt, but that’s not Jack Della Maddalena’s plan.
The Australian fighter won the welterweight title off Belal Muhammad back in May and is set to defend against Islam Makhachev on November 15th at UFC 322. While many fighters might look to keep the big champion vs. champion fights going with a move up to middleweight, Della Maddalena wants to make his mark at 170 pounds first.
“I would like to be a defending champion,” he told New York Post Sports. “I like to see a champion clean out a lot of the top 10 guys before moving up. I respect what Islam’s done. I think he’s moved up at a good time. He’s done good work at lightweight. Cleaned out the division, moved up. I’ll try and do this.”
“I’ll try and defend my belt multiple times before even considering changing the division.”
That doesn’t mean the dream of a second belt isn’t there at all. Della Maddalena admitted a fight against current middleweight champ Khamzat Chimaev intrigues him.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said of fighting Chimaev. “I’ve always, I would like to fight Khamzat Chimaev at one point. If my career goes well, it’d be a good challenge.”
The first challenge in front of him is Makhachev, who ruled the lightweight division for three years and five defenses before moving up to welterweight. That fight serves as the main event of the UFC’s big Madison Square Garden fight next weekend, with another champion vs. champion bout between Weili Zhang and Valentina Shevchenko serving as co-main.