UFC 322 Preview
The UFC is invading Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, November 15th for UFC 322. The main event will be a title fight in the welterweight division as champion Jack Della Maddalena will defend his title against former lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
Della Maddalena won the belt in his last fight in May with a unanimous decision victory over Belal Muhammad at UFC 315. The win was his 18th straight and moved the champion to 8-0 in the UFC. On his path to the title victory he collected key wins over Kevin Holland and Gilbert Burns. His title defense against Makhachev will be the toughest fight of his career thus far.
How does the Australian fighter feel heading into his first title defense? “I feel like I’m the underdog going into this fight from what Makhachev done in his career, but I embrace that; I embrace the underdog role,” the champion said. “I feel like I have everything to prove even though I’m the champion.
“I’ve got to prove (it), but I’m the best in the world.”
Della Maddalena is embracing the tough challenge of fighting under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. “Being able to defend my belt against a great is a special moment,” he said. “It’s a fight I’ve known about for a good 15, 16 weeks — really put a lot of work in, feel like we have a great game plan, and now it’s time to go out there and prove it to the world.
“I’ve always tried to fight bigger challenges every fight, and I guess this part of that trajectory,” continued the Australian. “It’s the biggest fight of my career; it’s a big challenge. It excites me, it motivates me to give it my all.”
He continued, “I believe I’ve got the skills to beat Makhachev, and it’s time to go out there and show the world.”
The 29-year-old plans on taking some of the things fellow Australian champion Alexander Volkanovski did well in his first fight with Makhachev. “Volk did so well — he didn’t settle in positions,” Della Maddalena said. “Makhachev is so good. If he can settle into a spot, he’ll be able to hold you down for a whole round. Volk just did well bringing it to Islam — didn’t shy away from the battle and really went after him, which is something that has inspired me.
“I believe I can take Makhachev into deep waters like Volk did at the end of that fight,” he added. “He’s inspired me and I look forward to topping what Volk did.”
Della Maddalena concluded by saying, “I wanted to become a champion, but I think becoming a defending champion is important, rather than just getting the belt and losing it,” he said. “I want to be a defending champion, so getting onto that list of defending champions is something that I’m working hard towards.
“I’m gonna leave it all out in the Octagon.”
Makhachev is a former lightweight champion and he defended the belt four times (a lightweight record) before vacating to make the move up to welterweight. He is still widely considered the greatest pound for pound fighter on Earth. If he can win a second belt moving up a division it would be difficult to argue him being the best fighter in the world.
How does the Dagestani feel heading into the fight with Della Maddalena? "I expect it's going to be a high-level fight and not just for the belt but for many things -- for legacy, for rankings, for the belt," Makhachev said. "I'm very excited to fight this Saturday and this is the biggest fight of my life.”
While many pundits believe a win on Saturday would make Makhachev one of the all-time UFC greats, but he does not have the same thought process. "Myself, I don't know. I cannot say this," Makhchev said. "Maybe people who make the rankings, they are going to make it. But, myself, [I'm] just focusing on hard opponent [and] to win the belt.”
Makhachev believes losing early in his UFC career helped him establish his dominance. "If you ask me, of course I want to believe this. It was something important that made me become more of a great fighter," the former champion said. "I learned a lot from this fight. Maybe, if I did not lose, I would not have become a champion.”
Why does the 34-year-old believe he will become welterweight champion? "Hard work," Makhachev said. "I know someone who is training more than me can beat me but I know nobody training more than me. That's the key.”
He concluded, "I started training because when you did something all of your life, you miss it,"said Makhachev. "I'm not good on other things [in life], I'm good in the MMA. I missed training after one week. I want to [keep] fighting and I will be fighting for more years because I feel, when I change weight now [to 170 pounds], it's easier to fight more often.”
The rest of the main card:
Valentina Shevchenko -135 (c) vs. Zhang Weili +115, women's flyweight title
#2 Sean Brady -130 vs. #8 Michael Morales +110, welterweights
#9 Carlos Prates -175 vs. #4 Leon Edwards +145, welterweights
#13 Benoit Saint Denis -180 vs. #9 Beneil Dariush +150, lightweights
ESPN+ Prelims:
Bo Nickal -205 vs. Rodolfo Vieira +170, middleweights
Gregory Rodrigues -185 vs. Roman Kopylov +154, middleweights
Erin Blanchfield -258 vs. Tracy Cortes +210, women's flyweights
Malcolm Wellmaker -155 vs. Cody Haddon +130, bantamweights
Kyle Daukaus -425 vs. Gerald Meerschaert +330, middleweights
Pat Sabatini -130 vs. Chepe Mariscal +110, featherweights
Fatima Kline -520 vs. Angela Hill +390, women's strawweights
Baisangur Susurkaev -1050 vs. Eric McConico +675, middleweights
Matheus Camilo -162 vs. Viacheslav Borshchev +140, lightweights
