Does Craig Jones hold the key to defeating Dagestani grapplers like Islam Makhachev?
That’s the question once again as we come into UFC 322, where welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena will face former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. In Della Maddalena’s corner: BJJ ace Craig Jones. He was in Jack’s corner when JDM took the 170 pound belt off Belal Muhammad, and Islam’s teammate just couldn’t keep the Aussie down.
Now fans are questioning whether Jones’ aid will help Jack Della nullify Makhachev’s wrestling as well … which is a narrative Islam is clearly sick of hearing.
“Let’s make this Craig [do] one fight, MMA fight,” Makhachev told Daniel Cormier. “Everybody asked me, like he helped him to improve something. It’s not working like this.”
“When you bring someone for one camp or for two camps? I give you a good example. What about Khamzat [Chimaev] fighting with Dricus [du Plessis]? Du Plessis brought many coaches, many partners, but it didn’t help. It’s not working like this.”
It may not have helped du Plessis against Chimaev, but Della Maddalena has shown a high level aptitude for wrestling and grappling and scrambling out of bad positions. What he’s been doing was already working before he added Jones to his camp, and now he literally has one of the top three jiu jitsu experts in the world there teaching him how to nullify Islam’s specific attacks.
Jones joked about the comment in an Instagram post, noting the look in Islam’s eyes when he was mentioned.
“That look, I’ve only seen in the exes that really loved me,” he said. “Send him 2-3 years Australia and forget.”
Della Maddalena has also been training with Alexander Volkanovski, who fought Islam Makhachev twice and nearly beat him in their first encounter. Makhachev is right that it comes down to the ability of the men stepping into the cage, but JDM clearly has that too on top of all the talent helping him prepare for this showdown at UFC 322 in Madison Square Garden.