Oct 21, 2025, 05:25 PM ET

From the humble regional arenas of Western Australia to the bright lights of New York City, UFC 322 is going to be particularly special for a couple of knockabout blokes from Perth.

With Jack Della Maddalena already confirmed as the headliner for the Madison Square Garden event in what will be his first welterweight title defence, against ESPN’s pound-for-pound No. 2 Islam Makhachev to boot, Australia’s representation has now doubled with the addition of Cody Haddon for the Nov. 15 [Nov. 16 AEDT] event.

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It will be Haddon’s first fight in a frustrating 12 months after stepping up from Dana White’s Contender Series and marking his UFC debut proper with a unanimous decision victory, with the bantamweight then suffering back-to-back foot and knee injuries.

While he missed the chance to fight on home soil at UFC 312 and then again at the recent Fight Night in his home town, Haddon said the long layoff had afforded him an opportunity to focus on his boxing, which could be particularly important against his opponent in NYC, Malcolm Wellmaker.

“When I hurt my knee, I couldn’t do like rotational sort of stuff or kicking,” Haddon told ESPN. “The only thing I could do was box, so I actually started boxing again. And I literally just worked on my hands the whole time I’d been off pretty much.

“And coming back to the gym and coming back to MMA, everyone has been complimenting me on how much better my striking has gotten, how much better my hands have gotten. So I feel like it’s been really good in that regard.

“You can turn a negative into a positive and you know, maybe I didn’t get injured, maybe I wouldn’t have gone and worked on my boxing so much.”

American Wellmaker, a fellow Contender Series graduate, has already put the bantamweight division on notice with two first-round KO victories since earning his UFC contract proper.

And Haddon is acutely aware of the tools Wellmaker has at his disposal.

Cody Haddon [L] has joined fellow Australian Jack Della Maddalena on the UFC 322 card in New York City Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

“He swings for the fences and he’s got a lot of power, so yeah making sure the hands are tight and just being able to close the distance on my terms and do what I need to do to breach that gap and get in and do a bit of my own work as well,” Haddon said of Wellmaker’s talents.

“It’ll be a hard fight, tough fight, but I believe I have the skill sets and the IQ to do it.”

While Haddon says he won’t be getting caught up in the moment of fighting at one of the world’s great sporting venues, he acknowledges just how special it is for two West Australians to be sharing the limelight.

And he hopes to set the tone for what could be one of the most memorable nights in Australia’s short, but outstanding, MMA history.

“Jack is leading the way for not only Perth, but Australia in general right now — him and Volk [Alexander Volkanovski] always lead the way,” Haddon said.

“And then just to be able to admire that and give us a bit of confidence that it is possible to do great things as well; it doesn’t matter where you come from or how many fighters you have in your region all this sort of stuff — talent is talent.

“Just seeing him lead the way just inspires me. And yeah, he’s inspiring a lot of fellow up-and-coming fighters from Perth just with what he’s doing in the UFC. It’s going to be an honour to share a card with him. I’ve shared a few cards with Jack before on the regional scene.

“We used to fight under the same promotion, shared locker rooms with him a couple of times and that was always good then. And I imagine it’s just going to be the same now.”