UFC 322 main event announced: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev

The fight many are anticipating officially has the date and location that many were expecting.

Welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena will battle former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 322, which takes place Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Della Maddalena (18-2 MMA, 8-0 UFC) aims to successfully defend his title for the first time since he upset Belal Muhammad in May with a five-round unanimous decision victory.

The title clinch topped a linear run from Dana White’s Contender Series to UFC championship notoriety with wins over Pete Rodriguez, Ramazan Emeev, Danny Roberts, Randy Brown, Bassil Hafez, Kevin Holland and Gilbert Burns prior to the title fight.

Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) vacated the lightweight title in pursuit of gold in a second weight class. His title defense over Renato Moicano in January was his fourth since he won the championship over Charles Oliveira in October 2022. He also holds two UFC title wins over Alexander Volkanovski and one over Dustin Poirier.

With the addition, the UFC 322 lineup includes:

Champ Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev – for welterweight title

Champ Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili – for women’s flyweight title

Leon Edwards vs. Carlos Prates

Erin Blanchfield vs. Tracy Cortez

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Massive UFC 322 main event announced as champ battles former champ

UFC 322 main event announced: Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev

Tags: